Abstract
In the present work we have shown experimentally that the light emission intensity from a STM tunneling junction depends exponentially on the tunneling distance, and we believe that the decay constant is equal to the mean wave vector of the surface plasmons excited by the tunneling electrons. Our estimation of the plasmon phase velocity shows that this is about two times smaller than the Fermi velocity of the electrons inside the metal. Theoretically, we have developed a description of the phenomenon based on resonant Cherenkov interaction between the tunneling electrons and the propagating surface plasmons. Our calculations of the dispersion law of the surface plasmons and the quantum efficiency for plasmon emission by the tunneling electrons are in qualitative agreement with the experimental data.
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