Magnetostrictive nanobars as sensor platform were induced. Based on the resonance behavior of strips made from thin films, it is identified that the amorphous Fe-B alloy is a good candidate for fabricating high performance sensor platform. The fabrication process of amorphous Fe-B nanobars using electrochemical deposition is reported. The magnetization hysteresis loop of Fe-B nanobars with the diameters of 50, 100 and 200 nm, respectively, was characterized. It is found that, for all nanobars, the coercive field measured along length direction is smaller than the coercive field measured perpendicular to length direction. The physics behind the phenomena is discussed.

In this paper, a novel micro-biosensor platform - magnetostrictive microcantilever (MSMC) - is reported. The resonance behavior and the sensitivity of MSMC as sensor platform were characterized and compared to the theoretical calculation. The detection of yeast cells using the biosensor made of MSMC was reported. The results demonstrate the feasibility of MSMC as a high performance biosensor platform. Compare to current microcantilevers, which is widely considered as the state-of-art sensor platform, the MSMCs have following advantages: 1) remote/wireless driving and sensing; 2) easy to fabricate. More importantly, it is experimentally found that the quality merit factor (Q value) of MSMC can reach more than 250, which is much higher than other cantilevers.