All low voltage lateral junction scanning tunneling microscope with very high precision and stability

Abstract

We describe the first lateral junction and fully low voltage scanning tunneling microscope, featuring very high precision, stability, compactness, and image quality (highly oriented pyrolytic graphite atomic resolution images). In its core, the tip and sample each sit on one of two parallel-mounted piezoelectric tube scanners so that the tip-sample gap is regulated along the scanners' pairing direction. The scanner's large lateral deflection provides a large gap regulation range even under low voltages, allowing exclusively using only low voltage (less than +/-15 V) operational amplifiers to precisely implement the coarse (inertial slider) and fine approach, feedback control, and hence the entire electronics. Because the scanners are identical and adjacent, thermal drifts are minimal.