Active gear-based approach mechanism for scanning tunneling microscope

In this paper, different methods to make piezo design, vibration isolation and approach mechanism were described. The piezo device and research on vibration isolation were also introduced. In the last part of this work, the new design to make approach mechanism and experimental result were presented. The new method is called gear-based approach mechanism. It consists of a series of gears and can reduce vibration produced by hands during the scanning process. The result shows that the gear-based approach mechanism can work very well. The STM system can work in various conditions with simple assembly.