Scanning tunnelling microscopy as a local probe of hot-carrier generation

An understanding of hot-carriers generated by the decay of plasmons on the surface of metallic nanostructures is of great importance when discussing plasmonic photocatalysis and other processes. Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) is a potentially powerful tool for mapping the intensity of this decay across these surfaces, as its mechanism of action is extremely local and can be influenced by the local density of states - itself influenced by local hot-carrier generation - in real time. The immediate goal of this research is to successfully demonstrate this imaging method and to verify that other influences, such as thermal effects, are ruled out, and then to analyse gold nanorods and any other appropriate meta-materials using it.
The metamaterials in question are excited (plasmonically speaking) by laser illumination, which forms part of the STM setup.