Micromechanical Torque Magnetometer for In Situ Thin-film Measurements

Published

July 1, 2001

Author(s)

John M. Moreland, Albrecht Jander, James A. Beall, Pavel Kabos, Stephen E. Russek

Abstract

We describe a new type of magnetometer based on a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) for in situ monitoring of magnetic film moment during the film deposition process. The magnetometer measured mechanical torque on a film as it is deposited onto a microscopic flexible silicon cantilever. The cantilever is excited by an external ac magnetic filed and its angular displacement is proportional to the magnetic moment of the film. The instrument has a magnetic moment sensitivity of 1 × 10 ^-12 Am²/√Hz corresponding to a torque sensitivity of 4 × 10 ^-16 Nm/√Hz. We were able to detect the moments of Fe films as thin as 3 nm. For thicker films (above 9 nm) we can detect thickness changes as small as 0.3 nm, corresponding to the instrument's moment sensitivity limit.

Citation

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

Volume

37

Issue

4

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

atomic force microscope (AFM), micro-cantilever, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), torque magnetometer

Citation

Moreland, J. , Jander, A. , Beall, J. , Kabos, P. and Russek, S. (2001), Micromechanical Torque Magnetometer for In Situ Thin-film Measurements, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=24472 (Accessed October 13, 2025)