There has been incredible progress in the field of ultrafast STM (USTM) in recent years, including the emergence of new technological concepts such as single-cycle lightwave-driven tunneling and rectification or plasmon-driven tunneling in optical USTM. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the field, focusing on the classification of light-matter interaction in tunnel junctions and approaches to image ultrafast electronic and structural excitations on solid surfaces. Questions addressed include: What are useful approaches to classify the interaction of tunnel junctions with time-varying electromagnetic fields? What types of ultrafast tunnel currents can occur in USTM? What information about the transient state of the sample, and what physical insights can be gained? By discussing these questions, the article aims to provide a solid foundation to the further establishment of USTM as a valuable tool for ultrafast surface science. [more...]

Nonlinear optical processes require high light intensities and are typically induced by ultrashort pulsed laser excitation exploiting the temporal confinement of the laser electric field. In this paper we show that strong spatial confinement of continuous-wave electromagnetic fields can also induce multiphoton photocurrents in a plasmonic STM junction. The observation of multiple photon steps in the current-voltage curve of the tunnel junction reveals that the electron transfer originates from nonthermal photogenerated electrons and not from heating. The results raise the fundamental question whether such transfer originates from hot electrons or from coherent photo-assisted tunneling. The results are now published in ACS Photonics 10, 10, 3637-3646 (2023).

Henrik successfully defended his master thesis “Light-matter interaction of ultra-thin ZnO Films on Ag(111) investigated by STM-induced luminescence” at the chemistry department at FU. Well done, M.Sc. Henrik! Looking forward to welcome you as PhD and to explore ultrafast light-matter interaction in ultrathin oxide films with you soon!

Exciting! Femtosecond laser-excited STM allows us to excite and probe coherent phonons with few nanometer spatial resolution. This work brings us a big step closer to our research goal of understanding the coupling between microscopic degrees of freedom – such as electrons and phonons – in spatially inhomogeneous crystalline solids at the nanoscale. One of our open questions has been: Can we use STM to probe lattice vibrations in real-time? In this collaborative study, we demonstrate that femtosecond laser-excited STM can measure coherent phonons in ultrathin ZnO films with ~2 nm spatial resolution. Our work introduces a new approach to locally probe the ultrafast structural response and electron-phonon coupling in a photoexcited solid with STM. For more details read our work: DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq5682.

Since September we are happy to welcome Henrik as a new member of the light-driven STM team. Henrik is a master student from the Freie Universität Berlin with interest in physical chemistry. In his master project he will explore the light-matter interaction of ultrathin semiconductor films inside plasmonic nanojunctions with STM. Welcome Henrik!