Atomically resolved real-space imaging of hot electron dynamics.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26387703.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms9365 and PMC identifier 4595757.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The dynamics of hot electrons are central to understanding the properties of many electronic devices. But their ultra-short lifetime, typically 100 fs or less, and correspondingly short transport length-scale in the nanometre range constrain real-space investigations. Here we report variable temperature and voltage measurements of the nonlocal manipulation of adsorbed molecules on the Si(111)-7 × 7 surface in the scanning tunnelling microscope. The range of the nonlocal effect increases with temperature and, at constant temperature, is invariant over a wide range of electron energies. The measurements probe, in real space, the underlying hot electron dynamics on the 10 nm scale and are well described by a two-dimensional diffusive model with a single decay channel, consistent with 2-photon photo-emission (2PPE) measurements of the real time dynamics.