Modeling the behavior of the magnetic force microscope

Results of some numerical simulations are presented that model the behavior of the magnetic force microscope under various probe/sample configurations. Analysis is carried out under the assumption of uniform magnetization of an axially symmetric probe of various types including: sphere, cylinder, conical tip, and rounded magnetically coated conical tip. In these cases the analysis can be made by studying the effective magnetic surface charge on the probe. We also consider the case of a spherical probe with magnetization that can rotate in response to the local field. The sample configurations studied are also of the axially symmetric type, which can be used to model the fields generated by arrays of cylindrical samples, e.g., alumite.