Imaging, single atom contact and single atom manipulations at low temperature using the new ScientaOmicron LT-UHV-4 STM

Abstract

The performances of the new ScientaOmicron LT-UHV 4-STM microscope have been certified by a series of state-of-art STM experiments on an Au(1 1 1) surface at 4.3 K. During the STM operation of the 4 STM scanners (independently or in parallel with an inter tip apex front to front distance down to a few tens of nanometers), a ΔZ stability of about 2 pm per STM was demonstrated. With this LT-UHV 4-STM stability, single Au atom manipulation experiments were performed on Au(1 1 1) by recording the pulling, sliding and pushing manipulation signals per scanner. Jump to contact experiments lead to perfectly linear low voltage I-V characteristics on a contacted single Au ad-atom with no need of averaging successive I-V’s. Our results show how this new instrument is exactly 4 times a very precise single tip LT-UHV-STM. Two tips surface conductance measurements were performed on Au(1 1 1) using a lock-in technique in a floating sample mode of operation to capture the Au(1 1 1) surface states via two STM tips dI/dV characteristics.