Investigation of ultrafast excited-state dynamics at the nanoscale with terahertz field-induced electron tunneling and photon emission

Abstract

The combination of terahertz (THz) pulses with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) enables us to investigate ultrafast dynamics at material surfaces with high spatial (nanoscale) and temporal (femtosecond) resolution. In this Perspective, we review the basic principles of THz-STM, outline the related literature, and discuss its future outlook capable of advancing nanoscience, especially by introducing further combination of THz-STM with scanning tunneling luminescence spectroscopy, which can extract more fruitful information about nanoscale materials via obtaining luminescence spectra compared to just observing the net tunneling current induced by THz pulses in THz-STM. By shining THz pulses onto an STM tip, we can observe plasmon luminescence locally confined between the tip and the surface, whose spectrum changes with tip conditions. The combined approach is a stepping stone toward investigating the ultrafast excited-state dynamics of nanoscale materials with high spatiotemporal resolution.