L. Kuipers et al., DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE OF A HIGH-TEMPERATURE, HIGH-SPEED SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPE, Review of scientific instruments, 66(9), 1995, pp. 4557-4565
This article describes the design and performance of a new scanning tu
nneling microscope (STM) which operates at elevated temperatures and h
igh scanning speeds. To minimize the thermal displacements within the
STM, a symmetric configuration was chosen with a large temperature gra
dient between the sample and the piezoelectric scanner. The thermal be
havior of the STM was optimized further by means of a finite element a
nalysis. The high scan rates (10(5) data points/s) are accomplished wi
th fast analogue electronics and a combination of a workstation and th
ree transputers. The STM has imaged surfaces with atomic resolution be
tween room temperature and 750 K, with low residual drifts only two ho
urs after a major temperature change. The sample surface remains withi
n the vertical range of the piezo actuator over a temperature interval
of 159 K. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.