Ferromagnetic resonance force spectroscopy of individual sub-micron size samples

Abstract: We review how a magnetic resonance force microscope (MRFM) can be applied to perform ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectroscopy of \emph{individual} sub-micron size samples. We restrict our attention to a thorough study of the spin-wave eigen-modes excited in permalloy (Py) disks patterned out of the same 43.3 nm thin film. The disks have a diameter of either 1.0 or $0.5 \mu$m and are quasi-saturated by a perpendicularly applied magnetic field. It is shown that \emph{quantitative} spectroscopic information can be extracted from the MRFM measurements. In particular, the data are extensively compared with complementary approximate models of the dynamical susceptibility: i) a 2D analytical model, which assumes an homogeneous magnetization dynamics along the thickness and ii) a full 3D micromagnetic simulation, which assumes an homogeneous magnetization dynamics below a characteristic length scale $c$ and which approximates the cylindrical sample volume by a discretized representation with regular cubic mesh of lateral size $c=3.9$ nm. In our analysis, the distortions due to a breaking of the axial symmetry are taken into account, both models incorporating the possibility of a small misalignment between the applied field and the normal of the disks.