Piezoresonance driver for positioning scanning probe microscopes in a wide temperature range

A long-standing problem for piezo-electric inertial motors is the decrease of efficiency and step length at lower temperatures. We have developed a piezoelectric vibration driver for positioning in a temperature range of 4-400K for Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM). The vibrator consists of two parallel piezoceramic plates, which are fixed rigidly to the support at their centre, and to the end pieces at their ends. The vibrator is symmetrical to the three perpendicular symmetric axes. There is no considerable decrease of steps size in the novel piezoresonance device while cooling to a low temperature, because the decrease of piezomodule d31 is compensated by an increase of the mechanical efficiency factor Q of the vibrator at low temperatures. The described vibrator can shift linear rails, rotate and/or shift cylindrical bodies.