ИСТИНА

This report reviews the state of the art in magnetic imaging by scanning probe microscopy technique. Special emphasis is made on the application of scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) for the investigation of magnetic micro- and nanostructures, the capabilities and remaining problems of the SNOM technique in magneto-optical studies. The experimental section deals with the application of a home-made SNOM for the local analysis of the Faraday polarization rotation distribution in ferrimagnetic iron-garnet films. Studies performed both in more conventional illumination mode as well as in the collection modes show that SNOM measurements demonstrate the possibilities of the polarization properties analysis similar to that of the conventional domain imaging with the Faraday effect with high spatial resolution. With properly adjusted polarizers one can separately observe domains with opposite magnetization as well as domain walls. Some fine structure features of domain structure were found by means of SNOM.