We present a newly developed facility comprising a combinatorial laser molecular beam epitaxy system and an in situ scanning tunneling microscope (STM). This facility aims at accelerating the materials research in a highly efficient way by advanced high-throughput film synthesis techniques and subsequent fast characterization of surface morphology and electronic states. Compared with uniform films deposited by conventional methods, the so-called combinatorial thin films will be beneficial in determining the accurate phase diagrams of different materials due to the improved control of parameters such as chemical substitution and sample thickness resulting from a rotary-mask method. A specially designed STM working under low-temperature and ultrahigh vacuum conditions is optimized for the characterization of combinatorial thin films in an XY coarse motion range of 15 mm × 15 mm with submicrometer location precision. The overall configuration and some key aspects such as the sample holder design, scanner head, and sample/tip/target transfer mechanism are described in detail. The performance of the device is demonstrated by synthesizing high-quality superconducting FeSe thin films with gradient thickness and imaging surfaces of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, Au (111), Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (BSCCO), and FeSe. In addition, we also have obtained clean noise spectra of tunneling junctions and the superconducting energy gap of BSCCO. The successful manufacturing of such a facility opens a new window for the next generation equipment designed for experimental materials research.
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January 2020
Research Article|
January 09 2020
Combinatorial laser molecular beam epitaxy system integrated with specialized low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy
Ge He
;
Ge He
a)
1
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
2
School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100049, China
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: kuijin@iphy.ac.cn; yuanjie@iphy.ac.cn; and huanq@iphy.ac.cn
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Zhongxu Wei;
Zhongxu Wei
1
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
2
School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100049, China
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Zhongpei Feng;
Zhongpei Feng
1
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
2
School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100049, China
3
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory
, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
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Xiaodong Yu;
Xiaodong Yu
1
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
2
School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100049, China
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Beiyi Zhu;
Beiyi Zhu
1
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
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Li Liu;
Li Liu
1
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
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Kui Jin
;
Kui Jin
a)
1
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
2
School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100049, China
3
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory
, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
4
Key Laboratory for Vacuum Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: kuijin@iphy.ac.cn; yuanjie@iphy.ac.cn; and huanq@iphy.ac.cn
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Jie Yuan;
Jie Yuan
a)
1
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
3
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory
, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
4
Key Laboratory for Vacuum Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: kuijin@iphy.ac.cn; yuanjie@iphy.ac.cn; and huanq@iphy.ac.cn
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Qing Huan
Qing Huan
a)
1
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
3
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory
, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China
4
Key Laboratory for Vacuum Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
5
CAS Center for Excellence in Topological Quantum Computation, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100190, China
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: kuijin@iphy.ac.cn; yuanjie@iphy.ac.cn; and huanq@iphy.ac.cn
Search for other works by this author on:
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: kuijin@iphy.ac.cn; yuanjie@iphy.ac.cn; and huanq@iphy.ac.cn
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 91, 013904 (2020)
Article history
Received:
July 11 2019
Accepted:
December 19 2019
Citation
Ge He, Zhongxu Wei, Zhongpei Feng, Xiaodong Yu, Beiyi Zhu, Li Liu, Kui Jin, Jie Yuan, Qing Huan; Combinatorial laser molecular beam epitaxy system integrated with specialized low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 1 January 2020; 91 (1): 013904. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5119686
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