Low temperature scanning tunneling microscope

Our LTSTM is designed to operate in temperatures down to 5 K, in magnetic fields of up to 9 T, in a vacuum environment of 10^-9 Torr. We have tested the instrument in temperatures down to 80 K, in a vacuum of 10^-6 Torr.

Helium dewar on the vibration isolation platform	Data acquisition using homemade electronics and nanoscope software
The coarse approach mechanism	Graphite image obtained with this system

Room temperature scanning tunneling microscope

Inside the coarse approach mechanism	STM head sans external shield
Jerry Kielbasa enjoys changing the tip...	...and obtains an atomic resolution graphite image

How does a scanning tunneling microscope work?