Clocking and controlling attosecond currents in a scanning tunnelling microscope

arXiv:2507.10252v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Quantum tunnelling of electrons can be confined to the sub-cycle time scale of strong light fields, contributing decisively to the extreme time resolution of attosecond science. Because tunnelling also enables atomic-scale spatial resolution in scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), integrating STM with light pulses has long been a key objective in ultrafast microscopy, spanning the picosecond and femtosecond domains, with first signatures of attosecond dynamics. However, while sub-cycle dynamics on the attosecond time scale are routinely controlled and determined with high precision, controlling the direction of attosecond currents and determining their duration have remained elusive in STM. Here, we induce STM tunnelling currents using two-colour laser pulses and dynamically control their direction, relying solely on the sub-cycle waveform of the pulses. Projecting our measurement data onto one-electron and many-body theory descriptions reveals a three-step transport process in the non-adiabatic tunnelling regime as the physical mechanism, with a theory-derived current burst duration of 860 as. Despite working under ambient conditions but free of thermal artifacts, we achieve sub-angstr\"om topographic sensitivity and a lateral spatial resolution of 2 nm. This unprecedented capability to directionally control attosecond bursts will enable triggering and imaging ultrafast charge dynamics at the spatio-temporal microscopy frontier of lightwave electronics.

Abstract:Quantum tunnelling of electrons can be confined to the sub-cycle time scale of strong light fields, contributing decisively to the extreme time resolution of attosecond science. Because tunnelling also enables atomic-scale spatial resolution in scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), integrating STM with light pulses has long been a key objective in ultrafast microscopy, spanning the picosecond and femtosecond domains, with first signatures of attosecond dynamics. However, while sub-cycle dynamics on the attosecond time scale are routinely controlled and determined with high precision, controlling the direction of attosecond currents and determining their duration have remained elusive in STM. Here, we induce STM tunnelling currents using two-colour laser pulses and dynamically control their direction, relying solely on the sub-cycle waveform of the pulses. Projecting our measurement data onto one-electron and many-body theory descriptions reveals a three-step transport process in the non-adiabatic tunnelling regime as the physical mechanism, with a theory-derived current burst duration of 860 as. Despite working under ambient conditions but free of thermal artifacts, we achieve sub-angström topographic sensitivity and a lateral spatial resolution of 2 nm. This unprecedented capability to directionally control attosecond bursts will enable triggering and imaging ultrafast charge dynamics at the spatio-temporal microscopy frontier of lightwave electronics.

23 pages, 4 figures, Supplementary Information (SI). In this minor revision, we correct referencing of other work

arXiv:2507.10252 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2507.10252v4 [quant-ph] for this version)

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Clocking and controlling attosecond currents in a scanning tunnelling microscope

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