Room temperature scanning Hall probe microscopy using GaAs/AlGaAs and Bi micro-hall probes.

A room temperature scanning Hall probe microscope system utilizing GaAs/AlGaAs and bismuth micro-Hall probes was used for magnetic imaging of ferromagnetic domain structures on the surfaces of crystalline thin film garnets and permanent magnets. The Bi micro-Hall probes had dimensions ranging between 0.25 and 2.8 microm2 and were fabricated using a combination of optical lithography and focused ion beam milling. The use of bismuth was found to overcome surface depletion effects associated with semiconducting micro-Hall probes. Our experiments demonstrated that Bi is a practical choice of material for fabricating sub-micron sized Hall sensors.