Common Source of Light Emission and Nonlocal Molecular Manipulation on the Si(111)-7x7 Surface

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that hot electron dynamics on Si(111)-7x7 surface lead to both molecular manipulation and light emission, sharing a common origin but diverging in their relaxation outcomes.

Contribution

It reveals that the same hot electron processes cause both light emission and molecular manipulation, linking these phenomena on the Si(111)-7x7 surface.

Findings

Threshold bias voltage for manipulation and emission is +2.0 V.

Hot electron transport follows ballistic-diffusive behavior.

Manipulation and emission share the same hot electron dynamics.

Abstract

The tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope can inject hot electrons into a surface with atomic precision. Their subsequent dynamics and eventual decay can result in atomic manipulation of an adsorbed molecule, or in light emission from the surface. Here, we combine the results of these two near identical experimental techniques for the system of toluene molecules chemisorbed on the Si(111)-7x7 surface at room temperature. The radial dependence of molecular desorption away from the tip injection site conforms to a two-step ballistic-diffusive transport of the injected hot electrons across the surface, with a threshold bias voltage of +2.0 V. We find the same threshold voltage of +2.0 V for light emission from the bare Si(111)-7x7 surface. Comparing these results with previous published spectra we propose that both the manipulation and the light emission follow the same hot electron dynamics, only differing in the outcome of the final relaxation step which may result in either molecular manipulation, or photon emission.