Imaging and controlling coherent phonon wave packets in single graphene nanoribbons

The motion of atoms is at the heart of any chemical or structural transformation in molecules and materials. Upon activation of this motion by an external source, several (usually many) vibrational modes can be coherently coupled, thus facilitating the chemical or structural phase transformation. These coherent dynamics occur on the ultrafast timescale, as revealed, e.g., by nonlocal ultrafast vibrational spectroscopic measurements in bulk molecular ensembles and solids. Tracking and controlling vibrational coherences locally at the atomic and molecular scales is, however, muchmore challenging and in fact has remained elusive so far. Here, we demonstrate that the vibrational coherences induced by broadband laser pulses on a single graphene nanoribbon (GNR) can be probed by femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) when performed in a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM). In addition to determining dephasing (similar to 440 fs) and population decay times (similar to 1.8 ps) of the generated phonon wave packets, we are able to track and control the corresponding quantum coherences, which we show to evolve on time scales as short as similar to 70 fs. We demonstrate that a two-dimensional frequency correlation spectrum unequivocally reveals the quantum couplings between different phonon modes in the GNR.

Automated summary

The motion of atoms is crucial for chemical and structural transformations. This study demonstrates the detection of vibrational coherences induced by broadband laser pulses on a single graphene nanoribbon using femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy. This suggests a potential breakthrough in tracking and controlling vibrational coherences at the atomic and molecular scales.