Investigating nano-scale dynamics using ultrafast scanning tunneling microscopy

这个项目的目标是利用我们的超快显微镜来开发一个关于纳米电子系统动力学的研究计划。我们正在开始研究两种非常有前途的纳米结构，这将为纳米电子设备的运行提供巨大的洞察力。首先，我们将研究金纳米线上的动态电流输运。尽管在小范围内，纳米线可以表现出非线性电容，影响其高频响应。超快扫描隧道显微镜是研究纳米线中电子传输动力学的理想探测器，提供了有关其非线性电容的信息。我们的第二个目标是研究光学纳米孔阵列中的等离子激元(载流子密度波)。等离子体相互作用是动态的，发生在纳米尺度上，使我们的超快STM系统成为理想的探测器。尽管我们对纳米尺度动力学的研究不会局限于这两个系统，但我们正在将超快电子集成到我们的STM尖端组件中，并开发半导体STM尖端，以探索超快显微镜中新设想的技术。

The objective of this project is to employ our ultrafast microscopes to develop a research program on the dynamics of nano-electronic systems.   We are beginning to look at two very promising nano-structures which will provide great insight into the operation of nano-electronic devices. First we will study dynamical current transport along gold nano-wires.  At small scales, nanowires can exhibit nonlinear capacitance, impacting their high-frequency response. Ultrafast STM is an ideal probe to study the dynamics of electronic transport through nano-wires providing information about their nonlinear capacitance.     Our second aim is to investigate plasmons (density waves of charge carriers) in optical nano-hole arrays. Plasmon interactions are dynamical and occur on nanometer length scales making our ultrafast STM system an ideal probe.   Our research into nanoscale dynamics will not be limited to these two systems, we are integrating ultrafast electronics into our STM tip assembly and developing semiconducting STM tips in order to explore newly envisaged techniques in ultrafast microscopy.