Compact low temperature scanning tunneling microscope with in-situ sample preparation capability
Abstract
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.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2015
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4931761
Entities
People
- Allan Schroeder
- Chih-Kang Shih
- Daejin Eom
- Hyoungdo Nam
- Jungdae Kim
- Sang-ui Kim
- Shengyong Qin
Organizations
- Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- University of Science and Technology of China
- University of Texas at Austin
- University of Ulsan