Method and apparatus for local selective detection and generation of polar structure alignments in microscopic object areas

摘要

Polar structures in microscopic object areas, such as, for example, electric or magnetic dipoles, can be locally selectively detected with high resolution if either resonant ultrasonic waves are induced in the object area by a locally effective high-frequency field and are detected by means of a focused acoustic lens arrangement, or electric or magnetic high-frequency oscillations are induced in the object area by focused ultrasonic waves and are detected by an appropriate receiver. By comparing the phases and/or amplitudes of the induced and of the detected waves, these provide information on the existence and the direction of the dipoles. Existing dipole alignments can be made energetically unstable by a critical direct-current electric or magnetic field and locally selectively reversed by the focused ultrasonic beam.