Microwave tunneling current from the resonant interaction of an amplitude modulated laser with a scanning tunneling microscope

Abstract

Simulations of the interaction of light with tunnelingelectrons in a scanning tunneling microscope suggest that there is a resonance in which the tunneling current is markedly increased. If a laser operating near the resonance is amplitude modulated, then the tunneling current will have components at the frequency of modulation and its harmonics, as well as at optical frequencies and dc. It is suggested that this effect should be considered as a new mode for laser‐assisted scanning tunneling microscopy. The simulations for the examples were made by solving the one‐dimensional time‐dependent Schrödinger equation by the numerical procedure of shooting methods, using a planar–planar scanning tunneling microscopemodel with the exact multiple image potential.