Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is a widely used technique for magnetic imaging. Besides its advantages such as the high spatial resolution and the easy use in the characterization of relevant applied materials, the main handicaps of the technique are the lack of control over the tip stray field and poor lateral resolution when working under standard conditions. In this work, we present a convenient route to prepare high-performance MFM probes with sub-10 nm (sub-25 nm) topographic (magnetic) lateral resolution by following an easy and quick low-cost approach. This allows one to not only customize the tip stray field, avoiding tip-induced changes in the sample magnetization, but also to optimize MFM imaging in vacuum (or liquid media) by choosing tips mounted on hard (or soft) cantilevers, a technology that is currently not available on the market.
Keywords: AFM probes; atomic force microscopy (AFM); high-resolution microscopy; magnetic force microscopy (MFM); magnetic materials.