Inelastic interactions of tunnel electrons with surfaces
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Updated: Oct 9, 2026

All-electronic Nanosecond-resolved Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Facilitating the Investigation of Single Dopant Charge Dynamics
Published on: January 19, 2018
A J Mayne1, F Rose, G Dujardin
1Laboratoire de Photophysique Moléculaire, Bât. 210, Université de Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France.
Abstract:
Inelastic interactions of electrons emitted from the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) are used to desorb individual hydrogen atoms from a Ge(111) surface. It is observed that the inelastic interactions depend not only on the electron energy and the current intensity but also on the electron emission regime of the STM tip. Quite surprisingly, it is found that tunnel electrons interact inelastically much less efficiently than field emitted electrons even though the electrons are in resonance with the Ge-H unoccuppied orbital.
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