Photo of the Week: Measuring Magnetic Materials with a Confocal Microscope

NSA researchers are working with government, academic, and industry partners to build quantum devices for universal applications. Partners provide lab-grown materials which researchers use to fabricate devices, manipulating material properties to fit NSA’s needs. In the lab, they turn those films into dozens of functional devices through photolithography, a process which patterns a device of multiple layers onto a chip. Once the chip is processed, scientists use a confocal microscope and magneto-optical Kerr microscopy to measure the magnetic properties of the devices, ensuring the chip has the necessary properties to move into final development and application into prototype memory devices. 

Photo credit: Chuck Robinson/NSA