The Omicron is the LAIR’s newest scanning probe microscope. It is an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV), low temperature, scanning tunneling (STM) and atomic force microscope (AFM), with optical access to the tip-sample junction. It has a base temperature around 4 K, with stable imaging at 77K and room temperature, and a base pressure below 5 x 10-11 mbar. The probe sensor can be either a standard STM tip or a QPlus sensor, the QPlus allowing for simultaneous AFM and STM measurement. The Omicron is currently located in an ultra-low vibration space: Omega pod.
The Omicron in Omega pod:
The SPM scanning head:
The Omicron control rack, with our mascot Q!
