Performance of an ultrahigh-vacuum sample transfer system for investigation of molecular-beam epitaxy grown semiconductor surfaces

This article describes the performance of a sample transfer system which allows direct coupling between a molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) chamber and several ultrahigh vacuum surface characterization chambers. The transfer system is simple, compact, and easily adaptable to any MBE or surface analysis chamber. By using this transfer system, high quality III–V compound semiconductor samples are routinely achieved, as judged by the scanning tunneling microscopy images obtained on these surfaces.