JPH0720039A - Magnetooptical effect observing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a magnetooptical effect observing device which can observe the entire visual field at a high magnification when the surface of a sample is observed under a microscope from an oblique direction. CONSTITUTION:In a magnetooptical effect observing device which observes the surface of a magnetic material sample 14 to be measured through a microscope 15 at a high magnification by irradiating the surface of the sample 14 with polarized light obliquely made incident to the sample 14 and detecting the rotational angle of the plane of polarization from reflected light from the surface of the sample 14 as the magnetization distribution on the surface of the sample 14, a line camera 17 is mounted on the eye piece section of the microscope 15 so that the line sensor section of the camera 17 can become parallel with the surface of the sample 14 and, at the same time, a moving mechanism 18 which can finely move the sample 14 in the direction of the incident and reflected light rays in a plane parallel to the surface of the sample 14 is provided. The line picture information of the surface of the sample 14 is successively read and stored by interlocking the line synchronizing signal of the camera 17 with the fine movement of the sample 14 by means of the mechanism 18 and the stored plane picture information is projected on a monitor 20.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magneto-optical effect observation device capable of observing an in-plane magnetization distribution of a sample surface of a magnetic material to be measured.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The observation principle of a magneto-optical effect observation device will be described below.

FIG. 2 shows an observation principle of the magneto-optical effect observation device. In FIG. 2, 1 is an irradiation light source, 2 is a polarizer,
Reference numeral 3 is a magnetic material sample to be measured, and 4 is an analyzer.

That is, the linearly polarized light component of the irradiation light from the irradiation light source 1 is extracted by the polarizer 2 and is irradiated onto the surface of the sample 3. The light reflected on the surface of the sample 3 has its polarization plane slightly rotated depending on the direction of magnetization of the sample 3 shown by an arrow A in FIG. The rotation angle of this deflected light is detected by the analyzer 4. By appropriately adjusting the magnetization direction of the sample 3 and the relative relationship between the polarization planes of the polarizer 2 and the analyzer 4, the magnetization direction of the sample 3 can be visually observed as bright and dark information.

Since such a magneto-optical effect occurs when the magnetization direction of the sample to be measured and the incident / reflected light optical axis coincide with each other, it is inevitable that the sample having the in-plane magnetization direction is obliquely observed in this way. Will be needed.

Incidentally, in an actual apparatus, in order to improve the sensitivity of an observation image, the irradiation light is appropriately focused and irradiated by a lens, or a laser light source having high brightness is used. A microscope is usually used for magnifying observation of the sample surface.

[0007]

However, in magnified observation with a microscope, the higher the magnification, the shallower the depth of focus of the microscope. Therefore, in such oblique observation, the focused area of the observed image within the field of view is extremely limited. There was a drawback that it was done.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a magneto-optical effect observation device capable of performing high-magnification observation over the entire region in the visual field when observing an oblique sample surface with a microscope.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the magneto-optical effect observation device of the present invention irradiates the surface of a magnetic material sample to be measured with obliquely incident polarized light and reflects the surface of the magnetic material sample to be measured. In a magneto-optical effect observation device that detects the polarization plane rotation angle from light and magnifies and observes this polarization plane rotation angle as a sample plane magnetization distribution with a microscope, a line is placed so that the licensor section is parallel to the sample plane on the microscope eyepiece. It is equipped with a camera and equipped with a moving mechanism that allows the magnetic material sample to be measured to move in a direction parallel to the sample surface in the direction of the incident / reflected light beam. The feature is that the line image information of the sample surface of the magnetic material to be measured can be sequentially read and accumulated by interlocking the amounts, and the accumulated plane image information can be displayed on the monitor.

[0010]

By the above means, in the present invention, when the oblique plane is observed by the microscope, the fact that the focusing area by the microscope exists in the shape of a straight line is used, and this is taken in as a line image by the line camera, and the sample surface is moved appropriately. The main feature is that line images are taken in one after another to construct a final sample surface image and reproduced on a monitor.

In the conventional apparatus of this type, it becomes impossible to perform in-focus observation over the entire observation image because the depth of focus of the microscope becomes shallow in high-magnification observation. Therefore, it had to be observed at a relatively low magnification.

On the other hand, according to the observation apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to obtain an in-focus image over the entire microscope visual field region at high magnification.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 11 is an irradiation light source, 12 is a polarizer, 13 is a condenser lens, 14 is a magnetic material sample to be measured, and 15
Is a microscope, 16 is an analyzer, 17 is a line camera, 18 is a moving mechanism, 19 is a controller, and 20 is a monitor.
The magneto-optical effect observation device of the present embodiment, except for the sample 14, including the irradiation light source 11, the polarizer 12, the condenser lens 13, the microscope 15, the analyzer 16, the line camera 17, the moving mechanism 18, the controller 19 and the monitor 20. Is configured.

In this embodiment, a device mechanism portion different from the device of FIG. 2 is a line camera 17 and a moving mechanism 18 interlocking with the line camera 17.
And a controller 19 having a function of driving and controlling both of them, obtaining a surface signal of the sample surface, writing this in the memory section, and displaying it as a sample surface image on the monitor 20.
The monitor 20.

More specifically, the microscope 1 will be described here.
The line sensor unit in the line camera 17 attached to the eyepiece 5 is set so as to be perpendicular to the sample surface reflection optical axis and parallel to the sample surface 14. Further, the moving mechanism 18 moves in the incident / reflecting optical axis direction, and the amount of fine movement by the moving mechanism 18 is driven by the controller 19 in association with the line synchronization signal of the line camera 17.

The principle of magneto-optical effect observation in this embodiment will be described below.

That is, the linearly polarized light component of the irradiation light from the irradiation light source 11 is extracted by the polarizer 12 and is irradiated on the surface of the sample 14. The light reflected from the surface of the sample 14 has its polarization plane slightly rotated according to the direction of magnetization of the sample 14 shown by the arrow in FIG. Then, the rotation angle of this deflected light is detected by the analyzer 16. That is, by appropriately adjusting the magnetization direction of the sample 14 and the relative relationship between the polarization planes of the polarizer 12 and the analyzer 16, the magnetization direction can be visually observed as a bright and dark image.

Although FIG. 1 includes a condenser lens 13 for converging and irradiating the irradiation light from the irradiation light source 11, and a microscope 15 for obtaining an enlarged image of the sample surface 14, these are conventional devices. Are commonly used in.

Next, the operation of the line camera 17, the moving mechanism 18, the controller 19 and the monitor 20 which are newly provided as the device mechanism portion different from the conventional device in this embodiment will be described.

As is apparent from FIG. 1, when the oblique plane is observed by the microscope 15, the focusing area by the microscope 15 exists in a linear band shape in the visual field. Due to the arrangement of the microscope 15 and the surface of the sample 14, this linear band-shaped focusing area is perpendicular to the optical axis of the incident / reflected light and parallel to the surface of the sample 14. An in-focus image of the surface of the sample 14 can be obtained by aligning the line sensor section of the line camera 17 with the in-focus zone.
Then, this line image is stored in the memory unit included in the controller 19. Next, the moving mechanism 18 finely moves the sample 14 to be measured in the direction of the incident / reflected light on a plane parallel to the sample surface,
By capturing the line images one after another and accumulating them in the memory unit, a focused scanning image of the surface of the sample 14 can be obtained. Then, by reproducing this in-focus sample surface scan image on the monitor 20, it becomes possible to observe the magnetization state of the sample surface at a high magnification, which has been impossible in the past.

In the present embodiment, the polarizer 12 and the lens 13 are arranged in the traveling direction of the irradiation light from the irradiation light source 11, but the same effect can be obtained even if they are switched before and after as is clear from the measurement principle. It is possible. Further, the example in which the analyzer 16 is incorporated in the microscope 15 is shown, but the same effect can be obtained also by disposing the analyzer 16 between the objective lens of the microscope 15 and the surface of the sample 14 or between the line camera 17 and the microscope 15. .

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, it becomes possible to observe the sample surface magnetization state with a high magnification microscope, which is impossible with the conventional magneto-optical effect observation apparatus. Further, in the conventional apparatus, the image is inevitably shortened in the tilt direction due to the oblique observation, whereas according to the present invention, the image having the same vertical and horizontal magnification can be obtained by appropriately selecting the linear image magnification and the movement amount of the moving mechanism. Can be easily obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an observation principle of a conventional magneto-optical effect observation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Irradiation light source, 2 ... Polarizer, 3 ... Magnetic material sample to be measured,
4 ... Analyzer, 11 ... Irradiation light source, 12 ... Polarizer, 13 ...
Condensing lens, 14 ... Magnetic material sample to be measured, 15 ... Microscope,
16 ... Analyzer, 17 ... Line camera, 18 ... Moving mechanism,
19 ... Controller, 20 ... Monitor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The surface of a magnetic material sample to be measured is irradiated with obliquely incident polarized light, the polarization plane rotation angle is detected from the reflected light from the surface of the magnetic material sample to be measured, and this polarization plane rotation angle is used as a sample plane magnetization distribution. In a magneto-optical effect observation device for magnifying observation with a microscope, a line camera is attached to the microscope eyepiece so that the licensor is parallel to the sample surface, and the magnetic material sample to be measured is reflected and reflected on the surface parallel to the sample surface. It is equipped with a moving mechanism that makes it possible to make fine movements in the light beam direction, and the line synchronization signal of the line camera and the fine movement amount by the moving mechanism are interlocked to sequentially read and store the line image information of the magnetic material sample surface to be measured. A magneto-optical effect observation device characterized in that it is possible to display the accumulated planar image information on a monitor.