Compact low temperature scanning tunneling microscope with in-situ sample preparation capability
- Department of Physics, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712 (United States)
- Department of Physics and EHSRC, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749 (Korea, Republic of)
- Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon 305-340 (Korea, Republic of)
We report on the design of a compact low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) having in-situ sample preparation capability. The in-situ sample preparation chamber was designed to be compact allowing quick transfer of samples to the STM stage, which is ideal for preparing temperature sensitive samples such as ultra-thin metal films on semiconductor substrates. Conventional spring suspensions on the STM head often cause mechanical issues. To address this problem, we developed a simple vibration damper consisting of welded metal bellows and rubber pads. In addition, we developed a novel technique to ensure an ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) seal between the copper and stainless steel, which provides excellent reliability for cryostats operating in UHV. The performance of the STM was tested from 2 K to 77 K by using epitaxial thin Pb films on Si. Very high mechanical stability was achieved with clear atomic resolution even when using cryostats operating at 77 K. At 2 K, a clean superconducting gap was observed, and the spectrum was easily fit using the BCS density of states with negligible broadening.
- OSTI ID:
- 22482785
- Journal Information:
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 86, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6748
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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