Apparatus for measuring exchange force

摘要

In an apparatus for measuring an exchange force between a specimen and a probe, the specimen and probe are faced to each other with a distance within a close proximity or RKKY-type exchange interaction region from a distance at which conduction electron clouds begin to be overlapped with each other to a distance at which localized electron clouds are not substantially overlapped with each other. In order to prevent the probe from being attracted to the specimen by a force between the specimen and the force, a piezoelectric element is provided on a cantilever and a control signal supplied to the piezoelectric element is produced in accordance with a displacement of the cantilever to control a spring constant of the cantilever. The exchange force between the specimen and the probe is calculated from the control signal supplied to the piezoelectric element.