Artifacts in magnetic force microscopy under in-plane applied magnetic field: Magnetic bubble as a case study

摘要

The study of magnetic bubble configuration in Co/Ni multilayers circular dots under in-plane magnetic field enlightens two magnetic force microscopy (MFM) measurement artifacts. We demonstrate that any tilt of the magnetic field producing out-of-plane field component due to the inhomogeneity of the MFM set up strongly affects the shape and size of the magnetic bubble independently of the in-plane field component intensity. Furthermore, MFM signal variations for in-plane magnetic field larger than 0.1 Tesla can only be understood considering MFM tip magnetization rotation. These two artifacts can have strong impact on MFM images and need to be carefully checked for reliable results in imaging skyrmionic structures with MFM under-field.