STUDY OF LARGE TRAVEL TUBE SCANNER FOR PHOTON SCANNING-TUNNELING-MICROSCOPY AND ITS INVESTIGATION FOR SOFT MATERIALS

The tube scanner is a key part of the photon scanning tunneling micros cope (PSTM). The sensitivity, resolution, scanning range and the linea rity of PSTM are quite relevant to the study of the tube scanner, In t his article. a new experimental method to measure, the deflection sens itivity of the PZT tube is reported, The tube travel range, its linear ity, and the coupling between x or y and z direction are analyzed, The theoretical formula for the coupling effects are also derived. With c areful design the tube scanner coupling can be neglected and the exper imental results show that the linearity of the large travel tube is sa tisfactory. Some images of PSTM demonstrate convincingly the system pe rformance, The imaging of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films and fish scale plates is a significant application of PSTM in the fields of organic m aterials and living specimens. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.