A mechanical rotatable magnetic force microscope operated in a 7 T superconducting magnet

An inertial piezoelectric motor called a SpiderDrive was used for the coarse approach because of its high compactness, high rigidity, and small size. Due to the mechanical rotation design, the MFM head can be rotated in a 7 T superconducting magnet with a bore size of 89 mm so that the direction of the magnetic field can be changed from 0° to 90° continuously.

The highest in-plane magnetic field strength tested was 7 T. This is the first rotatable MFM ever reported. Using the homemade rotatable MFM, we investigated a 40 nm thick La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (LCMO) thin film on NdGaO3 (100) substrate with anisotropy, determining that the charge-ordering insulating (COI) phase of the LCMO disappears as the direction of the magnetic field changed from 0° to 90°. Furthermore, the ferromagnetic pattern, appearing as bright and dark contrasts and similar to that formed by the S and N of a magnet, was seen parallel to the direction of the magnetic field.