Abstract
Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is commonly used for the characterization of magnetic nanostructures, which gets challenging for sub-20 nm features. The typical resolution of commercial MFM tips stands at about 30 nm, whereas sub-15 nm resolution has been reported by extensive modifications of the tip. In this paper, we show that a tip coated with a magnetic film possessing a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) offers superior resolution compared to tips without PMA. The advantages of a tip with PMA have been demonstrated based on writing magnetic transitions in a commercial perpendicular media. MFM images and line scans at different scan heights are presented along with an explanation for the observed improvement in performance. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3551733]