A Milli-Kelvin Atomic Force Microscope Made of Glass

Abstract

Milli-Kelvin atomic force microscopy (mK-AFM) presents an ongoing experimental challenge due to the intense vibrations in a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator and the low cooling power available at mK temperatures. A viable approach is to make the system exceptionally rigid and thermally insulating to decouple external vibrations and isolate heat dissipation from the piezo elements. Here, we present a low-cost and large scan-range mK-AFM that operates below 100 mK. All the essential parts of our mK-AFM, including the scanners, tip assembly, and microscope body, are custom-made of fused silica glass by taking advantage of its high specific modulus, extremely low thermal expansion coefficient, and excellent thermal insulation properties. We carefully balance the scan range (25 $\mu$m $\times$ 25 $\mu$m), heat dissipation, and stiffness of the system to reach optimal performance at mK temperatures.

The following article has been submitted to Review of Scientific Instruments. After it is published, it will be found at https://pubs.aip.org/aip/rsi

References in corpus (13)

• Nanoscale thermal imaging of dissipation in quantum systems
• Technical Review: Imaging weak magnetic field patterns on the nanometer-scale and its application to 2D materials
• Imaging resonant dissipation from individual atomic defects in graphene
• Local probe of bulk and edge states in a fractional Chern insulator
• Pascal conductance series in ballistic one-dimensional LaAlO${}_3$/SrTiO${}_3$ channels
• Tunable electron-electron interactions in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 nanostructures
• Atomic resolution STM in a cryogen free dilution refrigerator at 15 mK
• One-Dimensional Nature of Pairing and Superconductivity at the LaAlO${}_3$/SrTiO${}_3$ Interface
• Design of a scanning gate microscope in a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator
• Superconducting LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Nanowires
• Shubnikov-de Haas-like Quantum Oscillations in Artificial One-Dimensional LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Electron Channels
• Imaging high-speed friction at the nanometer scale
• Scanning SQUID-on-tip microscope in a top-loading cryogen-free dilution refrigerator

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Reconfigurable Oxide Nanoelectronics by Tip-induced Electron Delocalization