A compact, less than, scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) based on a new inertial slider design is presented. The STM is built of two concentric piezoelectric tubes, the inner one for scanning the tip and the outer one for inertial sliding of the sample to and from the tip. The coarse approach is made by inertial sliding of the sample along a plane that is non-perpendicular to the tip, while the sample surface is kept perpendicular to the tip throughout inertial sliding and image acquisitions. The compact design ensures a mechanical noise level of less than 0.1 Å
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