Cryogenic Sample Holder with Electrical Contacts for UHV SEM/SPM

0568602 - ÚPT 2023 CZ eng A - Abstract
Krutil, Vojtěch - Dupák, Libor - Fořt, Tomáš - Matějka, Milan - Srnka, Aleš - Vlček, Ivan - Urban, Pavel
Cryogenic Sample Holder with Electrical Contacts for UHV SEM/SPM.
16th Multinational Congress on Microscopy, 16MCM, 04-09 September 2022, Brno, Czech Republic. Book of abstracts. Brno: Czechoslovak Microscopy Society, 2022 - (Krzyžánek, V.; Hrubanová, K.; Hozák, P.; Müllerová, I.; Šlouf, M.). s. 142-143. ISBN 978-80-11-02253-2.
[Multinational Congress on Microscopy /16./. 04.09.2022-09.09.2022, Brno]
R&D Projects: GA TA ČR TE01020233
Institutional support: RVO:68081731
https://www.16mcm.cz/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/16MCM-abstract-book.pdf

We present a cryogenic sample holder with ten spring-loaded electrical contacts specially designed for an ultra-high vacuum scanning electron microscope combined with a scanning probe
microscope (UHV SEM/SPM) working in the temperature range of 20 K - 300 K. The contacts serve for the electrical connection of a removable transport pallet carrying a sample to the holder. Besides the sample, the transport pallet can be equipped with a low-temperature sensor, a heating element, and ten solid pins. Two quadruples of contacts allow precise four-wire measurement of electrical properties and temperature of the sample and the remaining pair allows two-wire connection of the heating element. The contact function was successfully verified by measuring the transient electrical resistance at the fixed and the spring contact sections within the whole range of the working temperatures. During the test, the transport pallet was repeatedly loaded into the holder. The limit temperature 22 K of the pallet was reached with a cryogenic helium flow cooling system embedded in a test vacuum chamber at the ambient temperature (~ 300 K). To minimize the effect of water ice condensation on the cold contact surfaces at low temperatures, a cooled thermal shield surrounding the sample holder was used as a water vapour trap. In this configuration, the limit temperature of the pallet was decreased down to 20.5 K. A thorough research study of commercially available sample holders indicates that the holders for the intended use are not available on the market.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0339871