CRYOSTAT FOR IN-SITU SCANNING-TUNNELING-MICROSCOPY STUDIES OF FILM GROWTH AT LOW-TEMPERATURES

This article describes a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) system which is designed to study film growth at very low subst rate temperatures (4 K < T-S<77 K). A simple tripod design with the ad dition of a sample manipulator, is implemented as the STM head. In thi s system, a metal film can be thermally deposited on a conducting or a n insulating substrate held at cryogenic temperatures and be probed in situ by STM. In situ and room temperature images of a Pb film grown o n a 4 K substrate are presented. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physic s. [S0034-6748(97)01111-8].