A magnetometer for estimating the magnetic moment of magnetic micro-particles

Magnetic micro-particles find a variety of applications as actuators at the micrometer and nanometer length scales. While the actuation gain is directly proportional to their magnetic moment, there are relatively few technologies available to estimate the magnetic moment of individual magnetic particles. This paper proposes a magnetometer for direct measurement of the magnetic moment of ferromagnetic micro-particles. The magnetometer comprises a novel micro-scale force sensor capable of interacting with magnetic particles and deflecting in response to the force of interaction. It also comprises a high-resolution measurement system, a source of magnetizing field, and a nanopositioner. The principle of operation of the magnetometer is discussed and is shown to enable the determination of the magnetic moment even of the buried magnetic particles, and those of irregular geometry. Subsequently, the force sensor, the measurement system, and the magnetic field sources are designed, fabricated, and calibrated. Finally, the magnetometer is employed to measure the magnetic moments of both fixed and untethered permanent magnetic particles and also of a fixed soft ferromagnetic particle. In all cases, the estimated magnetic moment is shown to agree with the theoretical estimate with an average error of about 16%.