Three dimensional magnetic nanowires grown by focused electron-beam induced deposition.

Control of the motion of domain walls in magnetic nanowires is at the heart of various recently proposed three-dimensional (3D) memory devices. However, fabricating 3D nanostructures is extremely complicated using standard lithography techniques. Here we show that highly pure 3D magnetic nanowires with aspect-ratios of ~100 can be grown using focused electron-beam-induced-deposition. By combining micromanipulation, Kerr magnetometry and magnetic force microscopy, we determine that the magnetisation reversal of the wires occurs via the nucleation and propagation of domain walls. In addition, we demonstrate that the magnetic switching of individual 3D nanostructures can be directly probed by magneto-optical Kerr effect.

Distinguishing magnetic and electrostatic interactions by a Kelvin probe force microscopy-magnetic force microscopy combination.

The most outstanding feature of scanning force microscopy (SFM) is its capability to detect various different short and long range interactions. In particular, magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is used to characterize the domain configuration in ferromagnetic materials such as thin films grown by physical techniques or ferromagnetic nanostructures. It is a usual procedure to separate the topography and the magnetic signal by scanning at a lift distance of 25-50 nm such that the long range tip-sample interactions dominate. Nowadays, MFM is becoming a valuable technique to detect weak magnetic fields arising from low dimensional complex systems such as organic nanomagnets, superparamagnetic nanoparticles, carbon-based materials, etc. In all these cases, the magnetic nanocomponents and the substrate supporting them present quite different electronic behavior, i.e., they exhibit large surface potential differences causing heterogeneous electrostatic interaction between the tip and the sample that could be interpreted as a magnetic interaction. To distinguish clearly the origin of the tip-sample forces we propose to use a combination of Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) and MFM. The KPFM technique allows us to compensate in real time the electrostatic forces between the tip and the sample by minimizing the electrostatic contribution to the frequency shift signal. This is a great challenge in samples with low magnetic moment. In this work we studied an array of Co nanostructures that exhibit high electrostatic interaction with the MFM tip. Thanks to the use of the KPFM/MFM system we were able to separate the electric and magnetic interactions between the tip and the sample.

Ultrasmall functional ferromagnetic nanostructures grown by focused electron-beam-induced deposition.

We have successfully grown ultrasmall cobalt nanostructures (lateral size below 30 nm) by optimization of the growth conditions using focused electron-beam-induced deposition techniques. This direct-write nanolithography technique is thus shown to produce unprecedented resolution in the growth of magnetic nanostructures. The challenging magnetic characterization of such small structures is here carried out by means of electron holography techniques. Apart from growing ultranarrow nanowires, very small Hall sensors have been created and their large response has been unveiled.

Hysteresis loops of individual Co nanostripes measured by magnetic force microscopy.

High-resolution magnetic imaging is of utmost importance to understand magnetism at the nanoscale. In the present work, we use a magnetic force microscope (MFM) operating under in-plane magnetic field in order to observe with high accuracy the domain configuration changes in Co nanowires as a function of the externally applied magnetic field. The main result is the quantitative evaluation of the coercive field of the individual nanostructures. Such characterization is performed by using an MFM-based technique in which a map of the magnetic signal is obtained as a function of both the lateral displacement and the magnetic field.