Note: Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope with detachable scanner and reliable transfer mechanism for tip and sample exchange.

A homebuilt low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) featuring a detachable scanner based on a double slider design, along with a reliable transfer mechanism for tip and sample exchange, is present. The coarse motor is decoupled from the scanner, which prevents the motor instabilities including vibrations and drifts from entering the tip-sample loop and thus improves the performance of the STM. In addition, in situ exchange of tips and samples can be implemented easily and reliably using a winch-type transfer mechanism. Atomically resolved images on graphite are demonstrated to show the performance of the proposed STM.