Development of Spin SEM Technology for Observation of Magnetic Domains

Teruo Kohashi, Dr. Sc. Kumi Motai, Dr. Sc. OVERVIEW: Electron microscope technology developed by Hitachi is used for testing and analysis of a wide range of semiconductors and other hardware devices. Spin SEMs are able to observe the magnetic structure of a device at the nanometer scale and are already used for applications such as evaluating the shape of storage bits on magnetic media. Hitachi has succeeded in implementing two new observation techniques in order to deal with the increasingly diverse range of device functions and evaluation criteria, namely observation of structural changes in magnetic domains at high temperatures (up to 500°C) and observation of samples with remanent magnetization resulting in magnetic stray fields. It is anticipated that these observation techniques will contribute to improvements in the performance of magnetic devices, including playing a role in the development of powerful new magnetic materials.