Surface modification and imaging of hydrogen passivated silicon with a combined scanning electron/scanning tunneling microscope

A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) was developed to work in conjunction with a field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) to exploit the different capabilities of the two instruments. The degrees of freedom necessary for STM tip and sample alignment were achieved mechanically using a translation stage incorporating parallelogram flexure hinges. It was found, through studies of lithography by depassivation of silicon, that the SEM was able to image depassivation patterns created by the STM. The origins of a number of interesting STM scan artifacts were identified with the combined STM/SEM using this capability.