UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

TuMA II is a home-built variable temperature scanning tunneling microscopy apparatus, with a base pressure in the order of 10^-11 mbar and superior stability during imaging in the temperature range from 20 K to 700 K. For investigation the sample is moved on a solid translator to each stage of sample analysis and preparation. The sample preparation facilities comprise of an organic-molecules supply, a versatile gas dosing system, multiple e-beam evaporator and Knudsen cells, a thermocouple spot-welded to the sample for precise temperature control, a micro-channel plate low energy electron diffraction set-up, and a thermal desorption spectroscopy set-up.

Research at TuMA II is focused on the on-surface synthesis of new compounds, like organo-metallic sandwich molecular wires which display unusual magnetic properties. TuMA II is also the prime system used for the development and characterization of new 2D materials like the transition metal disulfides MoS₂, TaS₂, WS₂, NbS₂ or VS₂.