A novel high resolution quantitative magnetic force microscope for hard disk research

The Magnetic Force Microscope (MFM) has become a major tool for characterizing and evaluating read and write heads, written tracks and material performance in magnetic data storage. However, standard MFM techniques suffer from the following problems that limit their application to image the bit structure as the storage density advances towards 1 Tbit/in/sup 2/: the lack of lateral resolution and measurement sensitivity on a nanometer scale; the difficulty of relating the measured signal to the stray field; and the ability to separate the topography and magnetic signal. The techniques to obtain a high lateral resolution and achieve a complete separation of topography and magnetism, were developed with sophisticated MFMs built for fundamental research. These instruments are not suitable for industrial applications due to their complexity and restrictions regarding the sample size. In order to overcome these limitations a novel room temperature MFM (QMFM), with a focus on industrial standard applications, has been developed at the University of. Basel.