A permalloy zigzag structure based magnetic bio-sensor

A magnetic fluid consisting of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles is embedded inside cells by intracellular uptake. A micro-fabricated magnetic zigzag-shaped surface structure is studied for use as a biosensor. We have developed a MOKE magnetometer based methodology to measure the different hysteresis loop signals between cells with and without being placed on zigzag sensors. Adding the magnetic cells on the structure decreases the coercivity from the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) signal of zigzag magnetic thin films because of the magnetic properties of superparamagnetic nanoparticles. The magnetoresistance measurement observed is that the switching fields of the zigzag structure with magnetic cells are significantly increased compared to the case without cells in the hard axis of the external field applied. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3676213]