Scanning Probe Microscope

1. What does an SPM measure?

and How does it work?
2. Tip and Cantilever
3. Laser Beam Deflection
4. Scanner and Feedback Control
5. Imaging Modes
Scanning Probe Microscope (I): STM

The Scanning Tunneling Microscope works like a record player…

 Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
 Allows for the imaging of the surfaces of metals and
semiconductors at the atomic level.
 Developed by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer at the
IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in 1982.

Binnig Rohrer

 STM has fathered a host of new scanning probe techniques:

Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy
(AFM), Magnetic Force Microscopy, Near-field Scanning Optical
Microscopy (NSOM) etc.
What is Tunneling?
 Quantum Mechanical Tunneling

L
 Quantum mechanics allows a small particle, such as an
electron, to overcome a potential barrier larger than its kinetic
energy.
 Tunneling is possible because of the wave-like properties
of matter.

 Transmission Probability: T = ?
 V(x)
V0 T  16 (1   )e 2d

e x
 (x)
e

x=0 x=a
x
STM-Tunneling
 2d
T  16 (1   )e 2d
I e
Scanning Probe Microscope (II):
 Piezoelectric Transducers
 Piezoelectric transducers are central to the operation
of the STM. These transducers provide the finely
controlled motion necessary for the demands of STM
operation.

 No other motion control system (e. g. stepper motors)

could operate with the precision of piezoelectric
actuators.

Tripod Tube
How can we make Tips?

Cut platinum – iridium wires

Tungsten wire electrochemically etched

Tungsten sharpened with ion milling

Best tips have a point a few

hundred nm wide
 Scanning and Tunneling

a tip sensing tunneling current while stationary over part of the surface.
The full potential of the STM for surface measurement, however, is based
on its ability to scan multiple points on a surface. This capability enables it
to provide a 3-dimensional "profile" of a surface.
 Vibration Control
Typical frequencies
1 Hz building vibrations due to people walking around etc.
10..100 Hz building vibrations due to ventilation, appliances
etc. (~a few micron)
1..10 kHz lowest internal resonance of typical STMs.
.
Solution
Make STM has rigid as possible so that internal resonance is high

Coiled spring suspension with magnetic damping

Stacked metal plates with dampers between them
Sound isolation and thermal drift control (symmetric and balanced design)
thermal expansion coefficients between the steel and the piezo ceramic material is a very good
The probe tip will move 50 nm for every K change (h~5 cm).
 Vibration Control

Air support table Spring suspensions

 Modes of Scanning

Constant
Height Mode

Constant
Current Mode
 What does a STM Measure?
According to quantum mechanics, electrons on a surface
behave both as particles and waves. One result of this is
that electrons behave like an "electron cloud" at the surface
of a material which is schematically represented below:
STM Does NOT Probe The Nuclear Position Directly

2d
I e
What are the Real
Applications of
STM?
Answer: Pretty
Pictures!
 Nanolithography: STM
Here, the artist, shortly after discovering how to move atoms with the STM,
found a way to give something back to the corporation which gave him a job when he needed
one and provided him with the tools he needed in order to be successful. (Xe on Nickel,
Nature 344, 524 (1990).

Here they have positioned 48 iron atoms into a circular ring in order to "corral" some
surface state electrons and force them into "quantum" states of the circular structure. The
ripples in the ring of atoms are the density distribution of a particular set of quantum states of
the corral. The artists were delighted to discover that they could predict what goes on in the
corral by solving the classic eigenvalue problem in quantum mechanics -- a particle in a hard-
wall box. [Crommie, Lutz & Eigler, Science 262, 218 (1993)]
Quantum corrals on Cu(111)
STS
STM and STS