A heating-cooling stage with detachable thermocouple contacts and an electron beam heater has been designed and tested for use in temperature programmed desorption and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments. This sample stage is compatible with the Omicron variable temperature STM, and the thermocouple contacts can be used with both the standard Ta plates and the variable temperature sample holder. The stage can also be retrofitted to the standard Omicron manipulation stage without requiring any additional electrical connections. (C) 2004 American Vacuum Society.