Toward 3D magnetic force microscopy: Simultaneous torsional cantilever excitation to access a second, orthogonal stray field component

Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is long established as a powerful tool for probing the local stray fields of magnetic nanostructures across a range of temperatures and applied stimuli. A major drawback of the technique, however, is that the detection of stray fields emanating from a sample’s surface rely on a uniaxial vertical cantilever oscillation, and thus are only sensitive to vertically oriented stray field components. The last two decades have shown an ever-increasing literature fascination for exotic topological windings where particular attention to in-plane magnetic moment rotation is highly valuable when identifying and understanding such systems. Here, we present a method of detecting in-plane magnetic stray field components, by utilizing a split-electrode excitation piezo that allows the simultaneous excitation of a cantilever at its fundamental flexural and torsional modes. This allows for the joint acquisition of traditional vertical mode images and a lateral MFM where the tip–cantilever system is only sensitive to stray fields acting perpendicular to the torsional axis of the cantilever.