3He refrigerator based very low temperature scanning tunneling microscope

S. H. Pan, Eric W. Hudson, J. C. Davis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

218 Scopus citations

Abstract

We describe the design and development of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) which can operate at temperatures down to 240 mK and in magnetic fields up to 7 T with high spatial and energy resolution. The compact and rigid STM head is mounted directly on a low vibration, single shot, 3He refrigerator. This refrigerator can be operated at its base temperature continuously for several days before the 3He needs to be recondensed. The system is equipped with a sample transport manipulator from room temperature, and a cleavage device at low temperature, so that the cryogenic ultrahigh vacuum condition inside the cryostat can be utilized. A superconducting magnet provides a magnetic field of up to 7 T at the sample along the STM tip direction. Test results have shown that, at the base temperature, this instrument has better than 0.5 pm z-direction resolution in imaging mode, and better than 20 μV energy resolution in spectroscopy mode.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1459-1463
Number of pages5
JournalReview of Scientific Instruments
Volume70
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 1999

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Instrumentation

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