| A low-temperature atomic force microscope has been designed and built. The instrument will operate at liquid helium temperatures, and will be used to investigate a number of phenomena observable only at low temperatures, including flux pinning mechanisms in superconductors, as well as domain structure dynamics in microfabricated ferromagnetic particles.;This thesis provides a general review of force microscopy, including a summary of the forces to which the instrument is sensitive, as well as the most common modes of operation of the force microscope. An overview of our newly constructed low temperature microscope is then presented, examining each of the components in detail. In addition, the problems of mechanical vibration isolation, thermal properties of materials at low temperatures, as well as remote in-situ manipulation are discussed. |
