Abstract
The thermal and photoelectronic processes induced when a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) laser irradiates the junction of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) are studied. This is performed by synchronizing the VUV laser shots with the STM scan signal. Compared to other wavelengths, the photoinduced thermal STM-tip expansion is not observed when the VUV radiation is freed from spurious emissions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the purified VUV photoinduced transient signal detected in the tunnel current is entirely due to photoelectronic emission and not combined with thermionic processes. The ensuing photoelectron emission is shown to be independent of the tip-surface distance while varying linearly with the pure VUV laser intensity. These results illustrate a strong decoupling between phonons and photoelectrons which allows a very weak STM-tip expansion.
- Received 16 June 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.155451
©2009 American Physical Society