Definition of design guidelines, construction, and performance of an ultra-stable scanning tunneling microscope for spectroscopic imaging.

Spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunneling microscopy is a powerful technique to study quantum materials, with the ability to provide information about the local electronic structure with subatomic resolution. However, as most spectroscopic measurements are conducted without feedback to the tip, it is extremely sensitive to vibrations coming from the environment. This requires the use of laboratories with low-vibration facilities combined with a very rigid microscope construction.