Optimization of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy tips for high resolution magnetic force microscopy by micromagnetic simulations

Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) tip coated with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy film (PMA tip) is one of the choices for high resolution imaging at low scan height (SH), since it has negligible tip–sample interaction related to its stable magnetic state, sharp, and small tip stray field. In this work, detailed micromagnetic studies are carried out to understand the effect of geometrical and magnetic parameters including the cone angle θ of the PMA tip, intergrain exchange constant $A_{2}^{*}$ , saturation magnetization M _s and uniaxial crystalline anisotropy constant K ₁ of the tip coating on the MFM tip resolution. To evaluate the resolution performance of the optimized PMA tip, MFM images of high-density granular recording media and patterned media are simulated. We find that, for the PMA tip and its coating, a cone angle in a range of 36.9^° to 53.1^°, a saturation M _s of 700 emu/cm³, a large uniaxial crystalline anisotropy constant K ₁ (>4.9×10⁶ erg/cm³) and a high intergrain exchange constant $A_{2}^{*}$ of (0.3–1.0)×10^?6 erg/cm are optimized conditions for high resolution imaging. The optimized PMA tip has an excellent performance on imaging of high-density thin film media (bit size of 8×16 nm²) at low SH of 2–8 nm and bit pattern media with a pitch of 50 nm, edge-edge spacing of 5–15 nm at SH of 8–15 nm.