Cryostat for in situ scanning tunneling microscopy studies of film growth at low temperatures

This article describes a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) system which is designed to study film growth at very low substrate temperatures (4 K < T-S<77 K). A simple tripod design with the addition of a sample manipulator, is implemented as the STM head. In this system, a metal film can be thermally deposited on a conducting or an insulating substrate held at cryogenic temperatures and be probed in situ by STM. In situ and room temperature images of a Pb film grown on a 4 K substrate are presented. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(97)01111-8].