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Updated: May 29, 2026

All-electronic Nanosecond-resolved Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Facilitating the Investigation of Single Dopant Charge Dynamics
Published on: January 19, 2018
Mode-selected electron-phonon coupling in superconducting Pb nanofilms determined from He atom scattering
I Yu Sklyadneva1, G Benedek, E V Chulkov
1Donostia International Physics Centre (DIPC), Paseo Manuel de Lardizàbal 4, 20018 Donostia/San Sebastian, Spain.
Abstract:
The electron-phonon coupling (EPC) strength for each phonon mode in superconducting Pb films is measured by inelastic helium atom scattering (IHAS). This surprising ability of IHAS relies on two facts: (a) In ultrathin metal films, the EPC range exceeds the film thickness, thus enabling IHAS to detect most film phonons, even 1 nm below the surface; (b) IHAS scattering amplitudes from single phonons are shown, by first-principle arguments, to be proportional to the respective EPC strengths. Thus IHAS is the first experiment providing mode-selected EPC strengths (mode-lambda spectroscopy).
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