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Description
Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is a variant of the atomic force microscope that allows the imaging of magnetic properties at a nanoscale. The measurement system consists of a cantilever with a mounted magnetic tip that gets deflected when it interacts with the sample through the van der Waals and magnetic forces during the scanning, allowing the visualization of the topography and magnetic domain structures on the surface of the sample. MFM measurements are qualitative due to the complex magnetization of the tip and the tip-sample interactions that can affect both parties involved. Therefore, properties like having the smallest and most spatially confined magnetic field possible are necessary to attenuate undesired influences on the magnetic structures under analysis. In order to achieve that, a tip demagnetization protocol was developed. Different magnetization configurations of the MFM tip were achieved by applying varying magnetic fields prior to each measurement. The influence of the magnetic configuration of the tip was tested in Co/Pd multilayers presenting perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.