A Practical and Automated Hall Magnetometer for Characterization of Magnetic Materials

Abstract

A versatile Hall magnetometer has been developed, manufactured, calibrated, and turned operational for measurements of the magnetic properties of bulk materials and magnetic micro- and nanoparticles. The magnetometer was constructed from the combination of various equipments, which was usually available in most laboratories, such as a Hall effect sensor, an electromagnet, a current source, and a linear actuator. The achieved sensitivity to the magnetic moment was approximately 10−8 Am2. The results were compared to measurements performed with commercial vibrating-sample magnetometers and superconductor quantum interference devices (SQUID) and showed errors of around 1.7% and a standard deviation of 1.2% in relation to measures themselves. The constructed Hall magnetometer records a magnetic hysteresis loop of up to 1.2 T at room temperature. This magnetometer is cost-effective, versatile, and suitable for research.