Enhanced Tunneling Current Tracking by an Improved Dual-Mode Stick–Slip Stage

This article presents a novel approach to enhancing the performance of scanning tunneling microscopes using a dual-mode stick–slip piezoelectric nanopositioning stage. Robust approaching and high-resolution tunneling current tracking are, respectively, accomplished by adopting a single stage working in stick–slip and continuous scanning mode. In addition, taking advantage of the contact force regulation, a motion resolution enhancement strategy is proposed for scanning mode, which theoretically improves motion resolution from 0.638 to 0.192 nm without modifying any mechanical or circuit structures. Experiment result demonstrates that the proposed strategy can effectively track tunneling currents in a more accurate and more stable manner.