Scanning tunneling microscope based nanoscale optical imaging of molecules on surfaces

We provide an overview of the development of a merged system of low-temperature ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunneling microscope (STM) with photon collection and detection units for optical imaging at the nanoscale. Focusing on our own work over the past ten years, the paper starts from a brief introduction of the STM induced luminescence (STML) technique and the challenge for nanoscale optical imaging, and then describes the design and instrumentation on the photon collection and detection system. The powerful potentials of the technique are illustrated using several selected examples from STML to tip enhanced Raman scattering that are mainly related to photon mapping. Such photon maps could reveal not only the local electromagnetic properties and the nature of optical transitions in the junction, but also exhibit spatial imaging resolution down to sub-molecular and sub-nanometer scale. The paper is concluded with a brief overlook on the future development of the STML technique.