Resonance and environmental fluctuation effects in STM currents through large adsorbed molecules

Abstract

Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) involving electron tunnelling through large adsorbate molecules with discrete electronic levels accessible at low bias voltage, exhibits conceptual and physical analogies to other thermal and optical multi-level electronic processes. The analogies are most conspicuous if the adsorbate levels are strongly coupled to the environmental molecular, conformational or solvent nuclear motion but interact weakly with the conducting substrate and tip. These conditions would be appropriate for example for adsorbed large transition metal complexes or redox metalloproteins. In these limits electronic-vibrational coupling induces resonance between the local adsorbate level and either the substrate or the tip levels, and the STM current-voltage relations can be approached by methods known from the theory of related electronic transitions such as long-range molecular electron transfer and multi-photon optical processes. We provide a new theoretical frame for STM processes in this limit. The formalism rests on perturbative coupling of the adsorbate levels to the substrate and tip. Specific models incorporate strong coupling to the adsorbate and environmental nuclear motion, vibrational relaxation features, and the continuous electronic spectra of the substrate and tip. All these features are directly and transparently reflected in the current-voltage relations of the STM process.