STM electroluminescence probes of metallic and polymeric materials

The STM-electroluminescence technique is shown to be a valuable tool for characterizing optoelectronic properties and understanding structure-function relationships in heterogenous or disordered material on nanometer length scales. The intensity of photon emission induced by tunneling electrons from rough Au films is found to depend on the surface feature size. This size-dependent photon emission yield is shown to agree with the theoretically predicted trend based on the inelastic electron tunneling mechanism. Correlated STM 'topography' and electroluminescence measurement of polypyridine (PPy) showed electroluminescence almost exclusively result from low conductivity regions of the film .This anomalous correlation between STM topography and photon emission maps of PPy films is interpreted as the consequence of the spatial variation of the carrier mobility. The results have important implications for understanding the underlying physics of electroluminescence of polymer films as well as for development of optoelectronic devices based on polymeric materials.

[1]  Donal D. C. Bradley,et al.  Electroluminescence in polymer films , 1997, Nature.

[2]  Baratoff,et al.  Theory of photon emission in electron tunneling to metallic particles. , 1992, Physical review letters.

[3]  P. Apell,et al.  Theory for light emission from a scanning tunneling microscope , 1990 .

[4]  McKinnon,et al.  Photon-emission scanning tunneling microscopy of silver films in ultrahigh vacuum: A spectroscopic method. , 1993, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[5]  H. Raether.  Surface Plasmons on Smooth and Rough Surfaces and on Gratings , 1988 .

[6]  P. Strohriegl,et al.  STM-induced luminescence study of poly ( p -phenylenevinylene) by conversion under ultraclean conditions , 1997 .

[7]  R. H. Friend,et al.  Efficient light-emitting diodes based on polymers with high electron affinities , 1993, Nature.

[8]  Berndt,et al.  Atomic resolution in photon emission induced by a scanning tunneling microscope. , 1995, Physical review letters.

[9]  C. J. Chen,et al.  Introduction to Scanning Tunneling Microscopy , 1993 .

[10]  J. Gimzewski,et al.  Photon emission with the scanning tunneling microscope , 1988 .

[11]  Richard Berndt,et al.  Photon Emission from the Scanning Tunneling Microscope , 1998 .

[12]  S. Ushioda,et al.  Theory of Visible Light Emission from Scanning Tunneling Microscope , 1992 .

[13]  J. Lambe,et al.  Light Emission from Inelastic Electron Tunneling , 1976 .

[14]  Kasuya,et al.  Isochromat photon map induced by scanning tunneling microscopy from gold particles. , 1996, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[15]  Homer Antoniadis,et al.  Organic Electroluminescent Devices , 1996, Science.

[16]  Johansson,et al.  Inelastic tunneling excitation of tip-induced plasmon modes on noble-metal surfaces. , 1991, Physical review letters.

[17]  R. V. Duyne,et al.  Nanosphere lithography: A materials general fabrication process for periodic particle array surfaces , 1995 .

[18]  Johansson,et al.  Electromagnetic interactions of metallic objects in nanometer proximity. , 1993, Physical review letters.

[19]  M. Feldstein,et al.  Femtosecond Optical Spectroscopy and Scanning Probe Microscopy , 1996 .

[20]  I. Smolyaninov,et al.  Spectroscopic measurements of light emitted by the scanning tunneling microscope , 1991 .

[21]  Beauvillain,et al.  Photon emission stimulated by scanning tunneling microscopy in air. , 1992, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[22]  Z. B. Wang,et al.  The role of localized surface plasmons in photoemission from silver films: Direct and indirect transition channels , 1993 .

[23]  M. Kleiber,et al.  Fabrication of nano-dot- and nano-ring-arrays by nanosphere lithography , 1996 .

[24]  M. Feldstein,et al.  Observation of coherent multiple scattering of surface plasmon polaritons on Ag and Au surfaces , 1996 .

[25]  C. Gerber,et al.  Surface Studies by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy , 1982 .

[26]  R. H. Friend,et al.  Lasing from conjugated-polymer microcavities , 1996, Nature.

[27]  M. Natan,et al.  Time-resolved Carrier Dynamics Near The Insulator-metal Transition , 1997, QELS '97., Summaries of Papers Presented at the Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference.