Researchers in Germany have developed a sensor that can detect tiny magnetic signals. Applications for such a device could include helping to diagnose disease by detecting magnetically labelled substances in the body.
The sensor picks up very small signals from low-frequency magnetic fields. Franz Faupel at the University of Kiel and his colleagues made it by coating an oscillating cantilever (pictured) with a material that changes shape in a magnetic field. This causes the cantilever to move at different frequencies as the magnetic field changes. A laser measures the cantilever's movement.
The device works at room temperature and does not require the external magnetic field that other magnetosensors need to detect small signals.
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Moving micro magnets. Nature 480, 155 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/480155c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/480155c
