Invited Paper IPF+NC-MoA1
Spatially Resolved Vibrational Imaging with Sub-Nanometer Resolution

Monday, October 20, 2008, 2:00 pm, Room 312

Vibrational spectroscopy has proven to be a powerful technique for chemical analysis, and its capability has been improved steadily over the years. At the limit of sensitivity is the detection of the vibration of a single bond and the imaging of such a signal would provide unprecedented spatial resolution in chemical visualization. In addition to revealing the chemical constituents at the atomic level, vibrational imaging at the sub-nanometer scale also can provide dynamical information such as charge and energy transfer, electron-vibrational coupling, and light-matter interaction. With the initial demonstration of inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy and microscopy with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), it is now possible to investigate with atomic scale resolution a wide range of inelastic phenomena that involve vibrational excitation. The scanning capability of the STM enables vibrational imaging of the interior of single molecules, their interactions with the environment, the coupling of electrons to vibrations in electron transport, and optical phenomena with atomic scale spatial resolution.