Dynamic micromagnetic field measurement by stroboscopic electron beam tomography

A stroboscopic electron beam tomography system for measuring the dynamic micromagnetic field of recording heads is presented. A pulsed electron beam, which is synchronized with the recording head driver, is scanned along the recording head surface from all directions. Integration of the magnetic field intensity along the beam path is calculated from the electron beam deflection angle. Intensity distributions of the dynamic magnetic field are calculated using a tomographic reconstruction algorithm. To obtain enough current even in pulsed electron beam operation, a high-brightness Ti/W thermal field emitter is used. This system was successfully applied in measuring the field distributions of a thin-film recording head, with 0.1 mu m spatial resolution and 1 ns time resolution at an operation frequency of 30 MHz.< >