A low-temperature atomic force/scanning tunneling microscope for ultrahigh vacuum

Abstract
We have built an ultrahigh vacuum atomic force/scanning tunneling microscope that works at 4.2 K. The microscope is incorporated into a very small chamber (100 ml) which can be evacuated and baked to ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) within a few hours by a specially designed valve. The instrument is about 20x20x70 mm3 in size and sturdy enough to operate without vibration isolation. The deflection of a microfabricated cantilever is detected by electron tunneling. Preliminary results show atomic resolution of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) in the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) mode and steps in KBr that range from one to four lattice constants in height at UHV conditions and 4.2 K.

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