Local ferromagnetic resonance imaging with magnetic resonance force microscopy

We report nanoscale scanned probe ferromagnetic resonance force microscopy (FMRFM) imaging of individual ferromagnetic microstructures. This reveals the mechanism for high spatial resolution in FMRFM imaging: the strongly inhomogeneous local magnetic field of the cantilever mounted micromagnetic probe magnet used in FMRFM enables selective, local excitation of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). This approach, demonstrated here in individual permalloy disks, is straightforwardly extended to excitation of localized FMR modes, and hence imaging in extended films.