Phys.org March 14, 2024
Direct observation of the relevant interplay of the electronic structure of a single defect with other microscopic elementary excitations on their intrinsic length, time and energy scales has not been achieved. Researchers in Germany directly resolved in space, time, and energy how a spin–orbit-split energy level of an isolated selenium vacancy in a moiré-distorted WSe2 monolayer evolved under the controlled excitation of lattice vibrations. By locally launching a phonon oscillation and taking ultrafast energy-resolved snapshots of the vacancy’s states faster than the vibration period, they directly measured the impact of electron–phonon coupling in an isolated single-atom defect. According to the researchers their work is a development towards a comprehensive understanding of complex quantum materials, where the key microscopic elementary interactions could be disentangled, one by one… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Lightwave-driven scanning tunnelling spectroscopy of a single-atom defect… Credit: Nature Photonics, 14 March, 2024