Some magnetic materials, such as nanowires, nanoparticles, and thin films, typically possess weak magnetic moments. This is due mainly to the small amount of magnetic material present. Therefore, when you need to characterize the small magnetic moment of such materials – and obtain an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio in the measurement – the sensitivity of your instrumentation is key.

In this new application note, we examine the utility and highly sensitive measurement capabilities of our 8600 Series VSM for characterizing low-moment materials at ambient temperatures. We present major hysteresis loop (MHL) and first-order reversal curve (FORC) measurement results for a 5.8 μemu (5.8 × 10^-9 Am²) cobalt-platinum (CoPt) thin-film sample and MHL results for 1.5 μemu (1.5 × 10^-9 Am²) and 600 nemu (6 × 10^-10 Am²) iron-doped (0.5%) silicon nitride (SiN) ceramic sphere samples.

Download application note.