5 Davey Lab
Penn State UniversityContacts:
Paul S. Weiss: stm@psu.edu
Brent Mantooth: bmantooth@psu.edu
Rachel Smith: rks151@psu.edu
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We use a particular variety of scanning tunneling microscope into which we have integrated collection optics to characterize both the optical and electronic properties of metal nanoparticles. When metal nanoparticles are placed in a tunneling junction (i.e., placed between a metal substrate and metallic tip), the injected tunneling electrons excite surface plasmons on the particle whose decay results in emitted photons. These photons are particular to the chemical composition of the metal nanoparticles. By focusing these photons emitted in the tunneling junction into a fiber optic and to a CCD camera, we can resolve both their energies and the locations of their origin from the surface, and thus we can more clearly examine optoelectronic events occurring in the tunneling junction. We aim to explore the effects of size, composition, and chemical environment of individual nanoparticles on their optoelectronic properties, in addition to the coupling between assemblies of particles.
Instrument Schematic:
This instrument is still under construction but nearing completion very soon.