Definition of design guidelines, construction and performance of an ultra-stable scanning tunneling microscope for spectroscopic imaging

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and construction of an ultra-stable scanning tunneling microscope capable of high-resolution spectroscopic imaging at low temperatures, achieving high stiffness and low vibration without specialized labs.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ultra-stable STM design using finite element analysis and sapphire components, significantly improving vibrational stability for spectroscopic measurements.

Findings

Resonant frequencies above 13 kHz for coarse approach

Vibration level of approximately 6 fm/√Hz achieved

Successful imaging of quasiparticle interference in Sr2RhO4

Abstract

Spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunneling microscopy is a powerful technique to study quantum materials, with the ability to provide information about the local electronic structure with subatomic resolution. However, as most spectroscopic measurements are conducted without feedback to the tip, it is extremely sensitive to vibrations coming from the environment. This requires the use of laboratories with low-vibration facilities combined with a very rigid microscope construction. In this article, we report on the design and fabrication of an ultra-stable STM for spectroscopic-imaging measurements that operates in ultra high vacuum and at low temperatures (4 K). We perform finite element analysis calculations for the main components of the microscope in order to guide design choices towards higher stiffness and we choose sapphire as the main material of the STM head. By combining these two strategies, we construct a STM head with measured lowest resonant frequencies above f0=13 kHz for the coarse approach mechanism, a value three times higher than previously reported, and in good agreement with the calculations. With this, we achieve an average vibration level of $\sim$ 6 fm/sqrt(Hz), without a dedicated low-vibration lab. We demonstrate the microscope's performance with topographic and spectroscopic measurements on the correlated metal Sr2RhO4, showing the quasiparticle interference pattern in real and reciprocal space with high signal-to-noise ratio.