Scanning Tunneling Optical Spectroscopy on Nanostructures

Abstract

Combining optical excitation and scanning tunneling microscopy provides a technique called Scanning Tunneling Optical Spectroscopy (STOS). This technique offers the possibility of investigating the local electronic and optical properties of surfaces and subsurfaces by illuminating them with monochromatic light and measuring the photocurrent with the scanning tunneling microscope. It is expected that STOS can be used to spatially resolve the optical and electronic properties of nanostructures. Nanostructures as quantum well quantum dots consisting of CdS and HgS are today prepared by wet chemical methods and they exhibit size-quantum effects at room temperature. I am particularly interested in the investigation of these structures with STOS.