We routinely obtain STM topographs with atomic resolution at 4.9 K from the Au(111)(23xsqrt(3)) reconstructed surface. The example shown in Figure 1 was measured with a gap voltage of +0.123 V at the Pt-Ir tip and a tunneling current of 0.13 nA. On the left side the typical "stripes" of the (23xsqrt(3)) reconstruction are visible, while the upper right area contains a stacking fault.
Figure 1
The performance of the 180 degrees hemispherical analyzer was tested with a silver foil at 10 K employing He I radiation (hv = 21.2 eV) and a pass energy of 0.7 eV. The Fermi-level onset as measured at 10 K gives a value of 10 meV and is practically entirely governed by the experimental energy resolution (see Figure 2).
Figure 2