Scanning tunneling microscope for nanoscale photon spectroscopy: Study of novel transition metal dichalcogenide - nanoporous graphene heterostructures

Abstract

The development of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) techniques represents one of the most significant advances in modern materials science. By enabling the observation and manipulation of structures at the atomic scale, STM techniques open up a field of study previously unattainable to other imaging and spectroscopic methods. For instance, light-matter interaction research was significantly limited by the Abbe diffraction limit in conventional optical spectroscopy. The introduction of quantum mechanics principles in microscopy technologies has provided new approaches to overcome these obstacles, allowing investigations such as controlling excitons behaviour in 2D semiconductors. Excitons, which have a significant impact on material behaviour, offer broad applications in optoelectronic devices, including new platforms of interacting qubits or superlattices of interacting single quantum emitters. This work addresses the principles and techniques of STM applied in photoluminescence studies (Photon-STM). The primary focus lies on the detailed development of an experiment conducted in collaboration with the Photon-STM group of Prof. Martin Švec to characterize excitons in MoSe2. This involves a comprehensive range of challenging tasks, from sample preparation to detecting excitonic phenomena, with my active participation in every stage of the process. This study serves a dual purpose: it documents the experimental procedures, covering prior sample preparation, obtained results and future prospects; and it provides a thorough analysis of the Photon-STM optical setup. In parallel, the difficulties encountered in commissioning a Photon-STM microscope