Light-based method enables precise control of ultrafast electron flow in a scanning tunneling microscope‎

What would it take to watch an electron move through a material? Researchers would need to see individual atoms and capture an electron's motion at incredibly short timescales. A Technion-led team has brought those two capabilities together in a scanning tunneling microscope, using carefully shaped laser pulses to control the direction of electron flow while preserving nanoscale spatial resolution.