Nanoscale magnetic mounds fabricated using a scanning probe microscope

Fe, Co, Ni or CoCr mounds of several tens of nanometer scale were fabricated using a scanning probe microscope. Mounds were formed on both insulator and metal substrates. MFM observation of the fabricated mounds were performed, and the contrast was turned over by reversing the magnetization of the tip, which is a convincing proof that the mounds are really magnetic. The magnetic structure inside the Co mound is supposed to be multi-domain, from a semi-quantitative analysis of the magnetic interaction between the mound and the MFM probe.