Characterization of Two Fast-Turnaround Dry Dilution Refrigerators for Scanning Probe Microscopy

• Published in: Journal of low temperature physics Vol. 215; no. 1-2; pp. 1 - 23
• Main Authors: Barber, Mark E., Li, Yifan, Gibson, Jared, Yu, Jiachen, Jiang, Zhanzhi, Hu, Yuwen, Ji, Zhurun, Nandi, Nabhanila, Hoke, Jesse C., Bishop-Van Horn, Logan, Arias, Gilbert R., Van Harlingen, Dale J., Moler, Kathryn A., Shen, Zhi-Xun, Kou, Angela, Feldman, Benjamin E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-04-2024; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Nature
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Condensed Matter Physics; cryogen-free; Cryostats; Dilution; dilution refrigerator; Electron energy; Electrons; Low temperature; Magnetic Materials; Magnetism; MATERIALS SCIENCE; Microscopy; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum phenomena; Refrigerators; Scanning probe microscopes; Scanning probe microscopy; Single-electron transistors; vibrations; Vibrations; Cryogen-free; Dilution refrigerator; Scanning probe microscopy
• ISSN: 0022-2291; 1573-7357
• DOI: 10.1007/s10909-023-03035-4

Low-temperature scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) are critical for the study of quantum materials and quantum information science. Due to the rising costs of helium, cryogen-free cryostats have become increasingly desirable. However, they typically suffer from comparatively worse vibrations than cryogen-based systems, necessitating the understanding and mitigation of vibrations for SPM applications. Here we demonstrate the construction of two cryogen-free dilution refrigerator SPMs with minimal modifications to the factory default and we systematically characterize their vibrational performance. We measure the absolute vibrations at the microscope stage with geophones and use both microwave impedance microscopy and a scanning single-electron transistor to independently measure tip-sample vibrations. Additionally, we implement customized filtering and thermal anchoring schemes and characterize the cooling power at the scanning stage and the tip electron temperature. This work serves as a reference to researchers interested in cryogen-free SPMs, as such characterization is not standardized in the literature or available from manufacturers.