title: Compact low temperature scanning tunneling microscope with in-situ sample preparation capability.
abstract: We report on the design of a compact low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) having in-situ sample preparation capability. The in-situ sample preparation chamber was designed to be compact allowing quick transfer of samples to the STM stage, which is ideal for preparing temperature sensitive samples such as ultra-thin metal films on semiconductor substrates. Conventional spring suspensions on the STM head often cause mechanical issues. To address this problem, we developed a simple vibration damper consisting of welded metal bellows and rubber pads. In addition, we developed a novel technique to ensure an ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) seal between the copper and stainless steel, which provides excellent reliability for cryostats operating in UHV. The performance of the STM was tested from 2 K to 77 K by using epitaxial thin Pb films on Si. Very high mechanical stability was achieved with clear atomic resolution even when using cryostats operating at 77 K. At 2 K, a clean superconducting gap was observed, and the spectrum was easily fit using the BCS density of states with negligible broadening.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Jungdae
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Hyoungdo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Shengyong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and EHSRC, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-ui
authors.initials: SU
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.affiliation: Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon 305-340, South Korea.
authors.forename: Daejin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Eom
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Chih-Kang
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Shih