Design of a compensated signal rod for low magnetic moment sample measurements with a vibrating sample magnetometer

A zero-signal sample holder is proposed for the measurement of weak magnetic signals with vibrating sample magnetometers. With proper shape of the support rod, a nearly vanishing signal can be obtained as a function of the magnetic field and the temperature. In particular, it is shown that the addition of an extra part to a standard glass sample holder can reduce the diamagnetic signal by more than three orders of magnitude with no noise increase. The proposed method is applicable to field, temperature, and angular measurements; it is also ideally suited to direct measurement of nanometer thick magnetic layers deposited on much thicker diamagnetic substrates.