Tracking the electronic oscillation in molecule with tunneling microscopy

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates, through simulations, that electron oscillations within a naphthalene molecule can be visualized and controlled using femtosecond laser pulses and scanning tunneling microscopy, revealing details of electron dynamics at ultrafast timescales.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation-based method to track and control molecular electron oscillations using laser pulse timing and tunneling charge detection, highlighting the role of CEP sensitivity.

Findings

Electron oscillations can be tracked by tunneling charge measurements.

Frequency and decay time of oscillations are detectable via STM.

CEP sensitivity diminishes with longer pulse durations.

Abstract

Visualizing and controlling electron dynamics over femtosecond timescale play a key role in the design of next-generation electronic devices. Using simulations, we demonstrate the electronic oscillation inside the naphthalene molecule can be tracked by means of the tuning of delay time between two identical femtosecond laser pulses. Both the frequency and decay time of the oscillation are detected by the tunneling charge through the junction of scanning tunneling microscopy. And the tunneling charge is sensitive to the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) for few-cycle long optical pulses. While this sensitivity to CEP will disappear with the increase of time-length of pulses. Our simulation results show that it is possible to visualize and control the electron dynamics inside the molecule by one or two femtosecond laser pulses.