Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy for probing strongly correlated many-body systems by scanning tunneling microscopy

Abstract

A theory for scanning tunneling spectroscopy is presented that includes elastic and inelastic electron-vibrational processes on equal footing. It is especially suited for the investigation of strongly correlated sample systems. As an example, the theory is applied to a molecular Kondo impurity, using a combination of $a\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}b\phantom{\rule{0.333em}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}n\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}t\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}o$ density functional theory and numerical renormalization group to quantitatively explain the experiment. In particular, the presented approach allows to identify a vibrational sharpening of the Kondo resonance in the targeted system.