The NF-UHV service is equipped with 3 experimental microscopes operating under Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV), wich are installed in the low noise clean rooms of the Cemes PicoLab building :
1) LT-STM/Qplus : Low Temperature STM
This low temperature tunneling microscope (STM) which operates at a temperature of 5K in STM mode and / or in non-contact AFM mode (NC-AFM). Equipped to prepare crystalline surfaces under UHV and to deposit thin insulating layers, it allows metal or molecule deposition at ultra low temperature.
2) DUF : « DiNaMo UHV Factory »
Designed and developed at the CEMES lab, this equipment offers a complete device for measuring the electronic properties of a single molecule in a planar configuration on an insulating surface. It is composed of 5 UHV chambers interconnected by a transfer tube under UHV : i) molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), ii) preparation chamber for tips and molecule deposition, iii) low and controlled energy ion source, iv) high sensitivity NC-AFM / KPFM microscope and v) STM + NC-AFM / KPFM microscope equipped with the nanostencil technique.
3) LT-UHV 4-STM/Qplus + SEM
Low temperature microscope (4K) with 4 independent STM heads surmounted by an FEG-SEM column. One of the STM heads is equipped with the Qplus module, allowing measurements in NC-AFM at 5 K. It is connected to a preparation chamber under UHV (possibility of multiple molecule sublimations) and to chamber equipped with a transfer UHV printer.
About ten permanent and non-permanent researchers are developing researches on this equipment.
In 2017, this microscope was the arena in which the 1st edition of the NanoCar Race, a race of molecules on a 100 nm track, took place. The 2nd edition of this scientific competition is expected in 2022.