Johannes Schust of the Loth Group delivered his final master's talk on "Atomically Resolved Luminescence in a Scanning Tunneling Microscope." Throughout his master's project, he played a pivotal role in relocating one of our THz STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscopes) to a new laboratory and overseeing its setup. In addition to general maintenance, he focused on enhancing the instrument's capabilities, particularly in measuring STM-L (Luminescence in a Scanning Tunneling Microscope) and evaluating the mechanical stability of the STM.
Johannes devised a tip-etching setup and electronic systems for automating the production of plasmonic gold tips for the STM. He also introduced an optical setup for imaging the STM tip and recording its motion relative to the hosting optical table. This proved instrumental in identifying systematic causes of mechanical instability. Furthermore, he implemented an optical arrangement to couple luminescent light from the STM junction into a fiber leading to an Avalanche Photo Diode (APD).
These innovations have propelled our setup towards combining the capability of inducing ultrafast voltage transients with THz pulses and collecting luminescent light. This advancement opens doors to achieving ultrafast atomic-scale luminescence.