Low noise, low heat dissipation, high gain AC-DC front end amplification for scanning probe microscopy

We report here on the design, construction and testing of a vacuum compatible AC-DC amplification system for low signal measurements with scanning probes. The most important feature of this new amplification system is incorporated within the head of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). This is achieved with a very low thermal dissipation radio frequency amplifier at the STM head. The amplifier gain is higher than 40 dB and has a 50 dB maximum. Further, the AC noise figure is 0.7 dB between 100 and 1000 MHz. The noise induced in the DC amplifier is less than 2 pA RMS (root mean square), which enables the microscope to scan over soft insulating molecular layers. Thermal drift at the STM tip-sample interface is below 0.1 nm min(-1) both in air and in vacuum operation. Atomic resolution on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite surfaces is reliably achieved. Spin noise measurements are provided as an example of an application.