Externally-triggerable optical pump-probe scanning tunneling microscopy with a time resoloution of tens-picosecond.

Photoinduced carrier dynamics of nanostructures play a crucial role in developing novel functionalities in advanced materials. Optical pump-probe scanning tunneling microscopy (OPP-STM) represents distinctive capabilities of real-space imaging of such carrier dynamics with nanoscale spatial resolution. However, combining the advanced technology of ultrafast pulsed lasers with STM for stable time-resolved measurements has remained challenging.

Development of a near-5-Kelvin, cryogen-free, pulse-tube refrigerator-based scanning probe microscope.

We report the design and performance of a cryogen-free, pulse-tube refrigerator (PTR)-based scanning probe microscopy (SPM) system capable of operating at a base temperature of near 5 K. We achieve this by combining a home-made interface design between the PTR cold head and the SPM head, with an automatic gas-handling system. The interface design isolates the PTR vibrations by a combination of polytetrafluoroethylene and stainless-steel bellows and by placing the SPM head on a passive vibration isolation table via two cold stages that are connected to thermal radiation shields using copper heat links.

Bases for time-resolved probing of transient carrier dynamics by optical pump-probe scanning tunneling microscopy.

The tangled mechanism that produces optical pump-probe scanning tunneling microscopy spectra from semiconductors was analyzed by comparing model simulation data with experimental data. The nonlinearities reflected in the spectra, namely, the excitations generated by paired laser pulses with a delay time, the logarithmic relationship between carrier density and surface photovoltage (SPV), and the effect of the change in tunneling barrier height depending on SPV, were examined along with the delay-time-dependent integration process used in measurement. The optimum conditions required to realize reliable measurement, as well as the validity of the microscopy technique, were demonstrated for the first time.