Construction of a sub-Kelvin ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscope in high magnetic field.

摘要

A sub-Kelvin ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) scanning tunneling microscope (STM) high magnetic field has been designed and constructed, and has been tested at ∼ 1K and in high magnetic field up to 9 teslas.; A four-chamber ultrahigh vacuum system creates reliable environment for tip and sample preparation, surface characterization, and exchanging samples, tips, and evaporating materials. The pressure of chambers is in the low 10 -11 torr range.; Various metal atoms and organic molecules can be deposited at room or low temperatures by home-made evaporators. The whole system is mounted on a custom vibration isolation table. A bottom loading ultrahigh vacuum compatible helium-3 cryostat with 9 tesla superconducting magnet is mounted above the vacuum chambers.; The Besocke type scanner is modified to meet the requirements of sub-Kelvin temperature and high magnetic field. The scanner is mounted at the bottom of the cryostat insert, which is driven by a bellows type linear translator. The scanner is at the center of the superconducting magnet for measurements at sub-Kelvin temperatures in high magnetic field. With the scanner at the bottom 25 K position, tips and samples can be exchanged.; The cryostat has two separate helium-4 reservoirs for the non-bakeable NbTi superconducting magnet and UHV space. The inner liquid helium reservoir provides a low radiation heat leak to the scanner at sub-Kelvin temperatures. Two layers of aluminum shields make use of the enthalpy of the cold He-4 vapor for radiation shielding. Detachable 25 K thermal anchoring to the STM scanner cools down the STM scanner very effectively. With 15 ml liquid helium-3, a holding time of more than 50 hours at 0.4 K base temperature was obtained, and it will be increased some more with new modifications.; Combined manipulating single atoms and molecules to make artificial nanometer size structures, with high resolution spectroscopy techniques of high resolution inelastic tunneling spectroscopy and spin-polarized tunneling spectroscopy, we can study nanometer size systems, especially invoking single spin centers in more detail.