Školitel: Doc. Mgr. Martin Setvín, Ph.D.
Stav práce: volná
Anotace:
From a classical point of view, electrons and holes added to a semiconductor behave as
delocalized plane waves. In ionic lattices, strong electrostatic interactions result in a spatial
confinement of the charge carrier or its complete localization. The resulting quasiparticle is called a
polaron [1] and it has wide impact on the materials properties and applications. The focus of this
Thesis is the interaction of polarons with light, aiming either to probe the polarons’ properties, or to
excite and manipulate these quasiparticles.
While light is a powerful tool for studying and manipulating solid state, the spatial resolution
of the associated techniques is fundamentally limited by the wavelength, providing area-averaged
information. Recently, there has been a rapid progress in combining light with scanning probe
techniques using plasmonic tips [2,3]. Amplification of the light intensity at the tip apex can reach a
magnitude of 106, therefore allowing to achieve a sub-nanometer spatial resolution while
maintaining the advantages of light. The aim of this Thesis is to use the combined STM/noncontact
AFM [4] to study the behaviour of polarons in the real space with atomic precision and, combine
the method with an optical setup that will allow additional employment of advanced methods based
on light.