Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy

The novel technique of low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy is used to study conventional and high- T c superconductors (spatial identification and distribution of the superconducting gap, vortex movement, etc.), but also custom-designed materials which are unstable at room temperature, e.g. xenon layers and size-selected clusters, or species whose rotational or vibrational movements have to be frozen in to achieve atomic resolution. We present the specific design and advantages of our low-temperature ultra-high vacuum scanning tunneling microscope along with recent results on the internal structure of C 60 fullerene molecules and their photon emitting properties.