A Ultra High Vacuum High Speed Scanning Tunneling Microscope, Review of Scientific Instruments 68, 2790 (1997).
R. Curtis, T. Mitsui, E. Ganz
We have developed a ultra high vacuum (UHV) compatible high speed scanning tunneling microscope (STM) which is based on a prototype STM that operates in air. The prototype operates at scan rates up to 106 Å/s. We have used this instrument to make STM movies and live video of both nickel and gold thin films by taking successive images at high frame rates. For example, 100 Å x 100 Å images with 50 scan lines and 100 pixels per line have been obtained at 15 Hz by rastering a tip with a scan speed of 150,000 Å/s. This is 10 to 30 times faster than conventional STM instruments. We applied the knowledge gained from the prototype STM to building a ultra high vacuum (UHV) version which we have operated at speeds up to 80,000 Å/s with atomic resolution on the Si(111) surface.
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Copyright 1996 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota