Abstract: A tip coating system for use with scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tips. The tip coating system includes a tip holder, a plate having a slot for receiving the tip and for holding a coating material, a heater for heating the coating material into a molten blob, a micropositioner for displacing the plate to and from the tip and for moving the tip within the slot so that selected portions of the tip contact the molten blob of coating material. The tip coating system is preferably controlled by electronic controllers, including a temperature controller for the heater. The tip coating system is used to insulate the tips with soft polymer coating material to ensure very low tip leakage current (on the order of about 1 pA typical).

Abstract: A tip and substrate preparation system for use with scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) includes a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip maker, STM tip coater, a substrate treatment method for producing clean, flat gold substrates for STM use and methods for preparing chemically activated substrates for use with an atomic force microscope (AFM). The tip maker includes a coater and an etcher which are preferably controlled by electronic controllers. The etcher provides fully automatic tip etching in a two-stage process in sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution, permitting platinum alloys to be etched without the use of cyanide-containing chemicals. The coater is used to insulate the tips with soft polymer coatings so as to ensure very low tip leakage current (on the order of about 1 pA typical). The substrate treatment device comprises a quartz plate and a quartz torch for annealing substrates in a hydrogen flame.