Easy UHV system integration!
VT instruments are housed in their own, dedicated UHV chamber which can either be mounted onto a standard Omicron system (MULTIPROBE…) or “bolted-on” to an existing vacuum system. In this case the wobble stick enables the sample transfer from the main vacuum system to the VT instrument. Instead of directly mounting the bolt-on SPM chamber to an existing system, Omicron also offers specifically designed small sub-systems. These operate as stand-alone systems and can be connected via a sample transfer mechanism to any existing system.

An easy-to-use, pincer-grip wobble stick is used for the fast transfer between the main system manipulator, the sample/tip storage carousel, and the sample acceptor stage in the UHV SPM. The transfer rod is employed to transport samples and tips to and from the fast sample entry chamber or the preparation chamber.

The Variable Temperature SPM chamber offers 4 ports with a direct view to the sample. They can be used for mounting evaporators, a CCD camera or for optical experiments with lasers or photon detection.

It is possible to mount up to two EFM evaporators on the VT-chamber for in-situ material growth even during imaging. The Omicron patented piezo inertia drive allows the same sample area to be relocated and imaged even after the sensor has been retracted during evaporation.

In addition to tip preparation methods applied during the scanning process (voltage pulses or tip indentation) tips can be treated on the system manipulator with heating or sputtering procedures. For high temperature treatment with e-beam bombardment a dedicated preparation stage is available which can be mounted between VT chamber and UHV system.

The Variable Temperature SPM can optionally be equipped with a long focal length optical microscope for sensor navigation. A dedicated set-up with a high-resolution CCD camera provides optical resolution below 10 μm.