Low-noise preamplifier for scanning tunneling microscope

Abstract

The current preamplifier is one of the important components of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), and its performance is crucial to the basic operations of the STM system, as well as for the development of demanding novel functionalities such as autonomous atomic fabrication. In this study, the factors that affect the performance of a current preamplifier including its noise spectrum density and the bandwidth were thoroughly analyzed, and a preamplifier was designed and fabricated specifically for STM systems. By employing a careful-selected low-noise op amp chip, the optimized current preamplifier has a noise floor as low as 4fA/√Hz and a bandwidth of 2.3 kHz, at its most sensitive transimpedance gain of 1 GΩ. It has three transimpedance gains, 10 MΩ, 100 MΩ, and 1 GΩ, that can be switched through digital control signals. A two-switch configuration was adopted to minimize the noise floor while maintaining the optimized bandwidth. The current detectable by this three-level preamplifier ranges from pA to μA, satisfying the requirements of most STM operations. Using this preamplifier, the fundamental functions of the STM system were successfully demonstrated include surface topographic characterization, scanning tunneling spectroscopy, and single atom/molecule manipulation. The measurement of shot noise in tunneling current was explored as well, and a linear relationship between shot noise and tunneling current was obtained by careful noise analysis. It is illustrated that the Fano factor of the shot noise in a normal metallic tunneling junction is approximately equal to 1, revealing the expected Poisson process for electron tunneling in such scenario. The results are valuable for high-resolution characterization of correlation systems in the future.