A high-speed variable-temperature ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscope

An ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)system capable of collecting constant-current STM images at rates exceeding 1 image/s at temperatures up to 900 K was designed, built, and tested. The microscope uses an inchworm to push a scanner assembly through a quartz tube towards the sample. When the scanner is within tunneling range of the surface, the inchworm is decoupled from the scanner, resulting in a small, rigid mechanical loop with a high resonant frequency. The cylindrical symmetry and the use of low thermal expansion materials reduces image distortion due to thermal drift. An analog proportional-integral controller with tilt correction is used to maintain a constant tunnel current. A personal computer running Microsoft WINDOWS '95 is used to control all other instrument functions, as well as for data acquisition, manipulation, and storage. Problems associated with the non real time nature of the operating system were overcome by collecting the STM images within a virtual device driver. By taking advantage of the WINDOWS '95 multimedia functions, the time required to display and save images was reduced below 5 ms using a standard personal computer with no special hardware other than data acquisition cards. Sample STM images of Pd(111) and halogens adsorbed on Cu(100) are presented. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(98)02209-6].