In september 2012, we took delivery of a combined scanning tunneling microscope and atomic force microscope by SPECS GmbH. This instrument was procured with the support of the Ernest Boninchi and the Ernst and Lucie Schmidheiny Foundations. It is an ultra-high vacuum system, base pressure in the low 10-10 mBar at room temperature, based on a Joule-Thomson fridge allowing to reach 1.05 K. The system features a 3 Tesla superconducting coil located in the vacuum chamber – this enables to have optical access to the tunnel junction while the field is on. Further equipment include several evaporators, an ion gun and hydrogen cracker.


Selected raw data JT-STM micrograph

