Photon emission from Si(111)-(7x7) induced by scanning tunneling microscopy: Atomic scale and material contrast

摘要

Photon emission from the scanning tunneling microscope provides a signal which is dependent on the local chemical environment beneath the tip, but the details of material contrast have not been previously studied. Here we describe photon maps with material contrast, where the spatial resolution of this chemical dependent signal is a few nanometers. The resolution is governed by the size of the localized plasmon beneath the tip, which is responsible for the photon emission, and we suggest how the resolution can be made subnanometer. References: 16