An ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscope for use at variable temperature from 10 to 400 K

Abstract

We report on the construction of an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) scanning tunneling microscope (STM) specially designed for operation in the entire range of sample temperatures between 10 and 400 K. The sample is cooled by means of a liquid helium continuous‐flow cryostat, while the supporting manipulator and the surrounding devices remain at room temperature. This allows rapid variation of the sample temperature. The standard instruments for surface preparation and analysis and the STM are contained in a single UHV chamber. By rotation of the manipulator the sample can be positioned in front of any of these instruments without changing the sample temperature. The performance of the microscope is demonstrated by two examples of images of xenon adsorbed on platinum(111) showing: (a) the evolution of the morphology of a submonolayer of xenon from adsorption at 17K up to desorption at about 90 K and (b) atomically resolved images of the hexagonal incommensurate rotated phase for xenon at monolayer completion.