Imaging ultrafast nanoscale dynamics with a THz-pulse-coupled STM

Author

Cocker, T.L. ; Jelic, V. ; Gupta, Madhu ; Molesky, S.J. ; Burgess, J.A.J. ; De Los Reyes, G. ; Titova, Lyubov V. ; Tsui, Y.Y. ; Freeman, Mark R. ; Hegmann, Frank A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

fYear

2013

fDate

12-16 May 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

1

Abstract

An ultrafast terahertz (THz) pulse coupled to the tunnel junction of a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) is found to produce a subpicosecond rectified current pulse that can be detected by the STM electronics. We use these THz-induced current pulses to develop a new type of ultrafast STM and demonstrate its unprecedented simultaneous 2 nm spatial resolution and 500 fs temporal resolution under ambient laboratory conditions [1]. The terahertz-pulse-coupled STM (THz-STM) is used to image the ultrafast capture of photoexcited carriers into a single InAs nanodot to show its unique capabilities (Fig. 1).

Keywords

high-speed optical techniques; indium compounds; measurement by laser beam; optical images; scanning tunnelling microscopy; terahertz wave imaging; STM electronics; THz-STM; THz-induced current pulses; THz-pulse-coupled STM; ambient laboratory conditions; photoexcited carriers; scanning tunnelling microscope; single InAs nanodot; subpicosecond rectified current pulse; temporal resolution; terahertz-pulse-coupled STM; time 500 fs; tunnel junction; ultrafast STM; ultrafast capture; ultrafast nanoscale dynamics; ultrafast terahertz pulse; unprecedented simultaneous spatial resolution; Educational institutions; Microscopy; Optical pulses; Spatial resolution; Tunneling;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe (CLEO EUROPE/IQEC), 2013 Conference on and International Quantum Electronics Conference

Conference_Location

Munich

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-0593-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEOE-IQEC.2013.6801037

Filename

6801037