Scanning probe microscope for ultra sensitive electro-magnetic field detection and probe thereof

Abstract

The object of the present invention is to provide a method and device thereof that captures microscopic magnetic signals such as those developed by electrical current flowing inside a circuit that is miniaturized to less than sub-micron order, and to evaluate the circuit. The scanning probe microscope for ultra-sensitive electro-magnetic field detection of the present invention has a constitution that uses a giant magnetostrictive material that demonstrates a large magnetostriction characteristic in a weak magnetic field in at least one portion of the probe of a cantilever of a scanning probe microscope, and at the same time as capturing the change in the magnetic flux due to a local change in electrical current, or the magnetic flux of a magnetic body, as a signal of displacement of said giant magnetostrictive material, on the other hand, detects the local shape of a sample surface with the function of the scanning probe microscope, and dissociates and images the magnetic flux information and shape information from the signal of displacement of the giant magnetostrictive material.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.