AVS 47th International Symposium
    Surface Science Wednesday Sessions
       Session SS-WeP

Paper SS-WeP24
Optical and STM-based Excitation of Adsorbed Molecules: Elucidating their Elementary Mechanisms and Novel Experiments

Wednesday, October 4, 2000, 11:00 am, Room Exhibit Hall C & D

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: L. Bartels, University of California, Riverside
Authors: L. Bartels, University of California, Riverside
E. Knoesel, Columbia University
D. Moeller, Columbia University
T.F. Heinz, Columbia University
S.W. Hla, Free University Berlin, Germany
G. Meyer, Free University Berlin, Germany
K.H. Rieder, Free University Berlin, Germany
D. Velic, Fritz-Haber-Institute, Germany
A. Hotzel, Fritz-Haber-Institute, Germany
M. Wolf, Fritz-Haber-Institute, Germany
P. Saalfrank, University College, England
Correspondent: Click to Email
Photodesorption and other photochemical reactions have been studied for a long time and lately using femtosecond laser pulses extremely detailed measurements could reveal an astonishing amount of their underlying elementary steps in the time domain. The scanning tunneling microscope, initially invented as a tool to image surfaces at atomic resolution, has in the meantime developed into a highly precise and powerful means to manipulate them. It could be shown that some of the excitation mechanisms relied elementarily on electron attachment to a molecular resonance. This is very similar to photoelectron attachment, but while STM has poor inherent temporal resolution, its superior spatial resolution can trace down reactions to specific adsorption sites and molecular arrangements. In this contribution a comparison of both excitation methods is given and for the induced lateral movement of CO on copper the results are compared. Further results from STM induced measurements are shown.