Quantitative determination of penetration depth using magnetic force microscopy

ORAL

Abstract

Extracting quantitative information from magnetic force microscopy has long been considered a difficult problem. We present a method to extract a numerical value of the penetration depth utilizing detailed knowledge of the MFM tip properties. Modeling the vortex field as that of a magnetic monopole we use the experimental data on a Nb film to find a penetration depth that is in good agreement with SQUID magnetometer measurements. We discuss the influence of tip geometry on the extracted values of the penetration depth and explore the differences between the simple model of the vortex field and a detailed calculation in the London model.

*Supported by US DoE via Grant No DE-FG02-08ER46492

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Authors

  • Joshua Thibodaux

    • Louisiana State University

  • Evgueni Nazaretski

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Leonardo Civale

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Superconductivity Technology Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • J.D. Thompson

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • LANL
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA

  • R. Movshovich

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA

  • I. Vekhter

    • Louisiana State University
    • Department of Physics \& Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA