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Updated: Aug 22, 2026

Angle-resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy At Ultra-low Temperatures
Published on: October 9, 2012
Color view of atomic highs and lows in tunneling induced light emission
Germar Hoffmann1, Thomas Maroutian, Richard Berndt
1Institut für Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, D-24098 Kiel, Germany.
Abstract:
Based on a detailed experimental study of light emission stimulated with a scanning tunneling microscope, we put forward a consistent picture for the atomic-scale contrasts observed to date on noble metal surfaces. Divergent contrasts near various atomic steps and conflicting interpretations of light emission from a model atomic grating, (2 x 1) reconstructed Au(110), are accounted for. The light intensity modulation results from different spatial distributions of the local density of final states in the elastic and inelastic tunneling channels.
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