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An application of bimodal atomic force microscopy T. R. Rodriguez and R. Garcia, Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 449 (2004) which allows simultaneous and separated imaging of both long range magnetic and shorter range topographical forces is described. This technique has a spatial resolution and a signal-to-noise ratio at least as good as other magnetic force microscopy techniques with the advantage of requiring only a single pass. Besides being an improvement on existing magnetic imaging techniques, the results also shed light on the fundamental contrast mechanisms in bimodal atomic force microscopy because the sign of the long range magnetic forces changes with the sample magnetization, but all the other sample properties such as elasticity and surface roughness remain the same. The results confirm the theoretical predictions of Rodriguez and Garcia.
Li et al. (Mon,) studied this question.