A Low-Temperature Scanning Probe Stage: Piezo Range Contraction, Thermal Load and Positioning Resolution at Four Kelvin

This paper presents a computed design for a scanning probe stage intended for cryogenic scanning probe microscopy, with its performance, resource budgets and margins derived from stated assumptions rather than asserted. The headline results are: fine scan range available at 4 K of 2.16 micrometres; nominal positioning resolution from the drive electronics of 0.033 nm; heat conducted to the stage along its wiring of 0.0386 mW; total heat arriving at the stage of 0.111 mW; stage temperature rise above the 4 K plate of 13.9 mK. Each figure was produced by the deposited computation from the inputs listed in the Methods, and the sensitivity of the conclusions to those inputs is examined in the Discussion. The design is a paper study: it is labelled, on its face and in this abstract, SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED, and no quantity reported here is a measurement of built hardware.