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Updated: May 6, 2026

All-electronic Nanosecond-resolved Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Facilitating the Investigation of Single Dopant Charge Dynamics
Published on: January 19, 2018
Distinction of nuclear spin states with the scanning tunneling microscope
Fabian Donat Natterer1, François Patthey, Harald Brune
1Institute of Condensed Matter Physics (ICMP), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Station 3, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Abstract:
We demonstrate rotational excitation spectroscopy with the scanning tunneling microscope for physisorbed H(2) and its isotopes HD and D(2). The observed excitation energies are very close to the gas phase values and show the expected scaling with the moment of inertia. Since these energies are characteristic for the molecular nuclear spin states we are able to identify the para and ortho species of hydrogen and deuterium, respectively. We thereby demonstrate nuclear spin sensitivity with unprecedented spatial resolution.
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