A design for a manipulator system for manipulating bare scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tips without any tip holder is presented. The extremely stiff and rigid system consists of an ultrahigh vacuum compatible fully three-dimensionally movable gripper module driven by stepping motors and piezomotors. The tips are clamped by hardened tool steel gripper jaws, which are controlled by a stepping motor through levers. The system allows the reproducible manipulation of bare tungsten tips made of wires with diameters of 0.25 nm and having length of only up to 3 mm without damaging the tip or the STM. The tip manipulators' advantage is that the total mass of the scanning piezotube is reduced by removing the mass of a separate tip holder. Thereby, it becomes possible to further increase the resonance frequencies of the STM.
In situ manipulation of scanning tunneling microscope tips without tip holder
01.01.2010
Review of scientific instruments 81, 013706 (2010). doi:10.1063/1.3284508
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
DDC: | 629 |
Scanning Tunneling Microscope For Use In Vacuum
NTRS | 1993
|A Compatible Atomic Force and Scanning Tunneling Microscope System
British Library Online Contents | 1999
|