Additive Manufacturing of Co₃Fe Nano-Probes for Magnetic Force Microscopy

Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is a powerful extension of atomic force microscopy (AFM), which mostly uses nano-probes with functional coatings for studying magnetic surface features. Although well established, additional layers inherently increase apex radii, which reduce lateral resolution and also contain the risk of delamination, rendering such nano-probes doubtful or even useless. To overcome these limitations, we now introduce the additive direct-write fabrication of magnetic nano-cones via focused electron beam-induced deposition (FEBID) using an HCo₃Fe(CO)₁₂ precursor. The study first identifies a proper 3D design, confines the most relevant process parameters by means of primary electron energy and beam currents, and evaluates post-growth procedures as well. That way, highly crystalline nano-tips with minimal surface contamination and apex radii in the sub-15 nm regime are fabricated and benchmarked against commercial products. The results not only reveal a very high performance during MFM operation but in particular demonstrate virtually loss-free behavior after almost 8 h of continuous operation, thanks to the all-metal character. Even after more than 12 months of storage in ambient conditions, no performance loss is observed, which underlines the high overall performance of the here-introduced FEBID-based Co₃Fe MFM nano-probes.