Mats Persson

Department of Applied Physic,
Chalmers/Göteborg University
SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden

In this talk I will present some highlights of our on-going theoretical work concerning atomic processes induced by inelastic electron tunnelling from a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) tip through single atoms and molecules adsorbed on a metal surface. These processes include single molecule vibrational spectroscopy and microscopy [1,2] and chemistry [3], and charge state control of single adatoms on thin insulating films supported by a metal substrate [4]. Our theoretical approach is based on density functional theory of the electronic structure and a many body extension of Tersoff-Hamann theory to vibrational inelastic tunnelling.

References
1. N. Lorente and M. Persson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2997 (2000).
2. N. Lorente, M. Persson, L. J. Lauhon, and W. Ho, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2954 (2001).
3. B. C. Stipe, M. A. Rezaei, W. Ho, S. Gao, M. Persson, and B.I. Lundqvist, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 4410 (1997).
4. J. Repp, G. Meyer, F. E. Olsson, and M. Persson, Science 305, 493 (2004).