Design and three dimensional calibration of a measuring scanning tunneling microscope for metrological applications

Abstract

A scanning-tunneling microscope @TM) of the scanning-sample type with transducers for the measurement of the position in all three axes has been developed. Motions in the X-, Y-, and Z-axis are straight and rectangular to a high degree and the capacitance transducers are calibrated in sip by plane mirror laser-interferometry. With these qualities as part of the design, the Abbe error may be minimized. X-Y-capacitance transducers and X-Y-piezo actuators are part of analog servo loops, thus providing positioning in the X-Y-plane to a desired coordinate. The STM is mainly built from commercially available parts.

Benchmarking the length measurement capabilities of the National Institute of Standards and Technology

“…New calibration systems have recently come into operation which are based on scanned probe microscopes either directly coupled to laser interferometers [71,72,73] or intermittently calibrated by them [73,74,75]. Whether use of these new systems will lead to significantly improved uncertainties for step height measurements remains to be seen.…”

AFM measurement of linewidth with sub-nanometer scale precision

“…In view of taking the maximum advantage of the resolution, minimization of errors in the calibration of probe displacement is a critical issue. Several metrology institutes have developed metrological AFMs with highly accurate displacement sensors, such as a capacitance sensor [1,2,3,4,5] and a laser interferometer [6,7,8,9,10,11,12] for the purpose of the calibration of reference samples. A sample is scanned along three axes in most metrological AFMs because of the spatial limitation of displacement sensors.…”

Metrological Scanning Probe Microscopes ‐ Instruments for Dimensional Nanometrology

“…Because of their high spatial resolution, use of these microscopes is also of great interest for metrological applications. This is why the PTB has begun using SPMs in dimensional metrology as one of the first national metrology institutes [1,2].…”