Time-dependent tunneling in laser irradiated scanning tunneling microscope junction

A principal motivation for the studies reported in this thesis was to obtain a theoretical explanation for the experimental results obtained by Nguyen et al. (1989) to determine the traversal time of an electron tunneling through a quantum mechanical barrier in a laser irradiated STM junction. The work therefore focused on the calculation of tunneling in a time-dependent oscillating barrier, and more specifically on the inelastic contributions to the tunneling current. To do so the kinetic formalism for tunneling was modified and extended to calculate inelastic processes in an irradiated tunneling junction. Furthermore, there is significant absorption of power from the laser beam in the junction electrodes resulting in thermal effects which can influence the tunneling. Extensive analysis of the spatial and temporal temperature distributions was first done for a realistic model of the diode emitter and anode using the Green function method. Specifically we considered (i) thermal effects due to surface heating of the absorbed laser radiation, (ii) the thermoelectric emf produced in the junction due to differential heating, and (iii) resistive and Thomson heat produced in the junction by laser induced currents. Using first-order time-dependent perturbation theory we also (iv) calculated the inelastic tunneling current due to a time dependent oscillating barrier produced by the antenna geometry of the STM junction. Lastly, we (v) formulated photo-assisted tunneling due to the electron-photon interaction in the junction using the second-quantization formalism.; Although quite significant results were obtained for the tunneling current density as a function of frequency, gap distance and other junction parameters which gave insights into important features of the Nguyen et al. experiment (and tunneling characteristics of an irradiated STM in general), no single expression was derived or calculated results obtained which explains or fits all their observed data, or confirms adequately the simple interpretation of an operational tunneling time. Rather the results suggest restrictions which must be imposed on their experimental procedure to observe or more precisely extract a tunneling time measured in an irradiated STM junction.