The scanning tunneling microscope as a high‐gain, low‐noise displacement sensor

We consider the capabilities of the tunneling probe of the scanning tunneling microscope as a displacement sensor as distinguished from its better established application to surface imaging. Electromechanical transducers that operate on this principle can achieve very large gain and a noise temperature equal to the minimum required by quantum mechanics for any linear amplifier. We present a two‐port network representation of the tunneling transducer, including noise, that allows us to discuss the differences between the tunneling transducer and more conventional electromechanical transducers and to draw analogies between a tunneling transducer and a transistor. We present a simple equivalent circuit for the tunneling transducer including two uncorrelated noise generators, the tunneling current shot noise and the fluctuating force that the tunneling probe exerts on a test mass. In practice the fluctuating ‘‘back action’’ force spectral density is exceedingly small. We give an example of a system in which a...