A Spin-Polarized Scanning Electron Microscope with 5-nm Resolution

Abstract

For studying sub-10-nm-scale magnetic structures, a high-resolution spin-polarized scanning electron microscope (spin SEM) was developed. It has a specially designed, compact secondary-electron collector that produces a finer probe beam than that of a conventional spin SEM. By observing a narrow magnetic domain wall of SmCo₅, the developed spin SEM was shown to have a high resolution of 5 nm.