Photon-energy-programmable subnanometric electron birth-site control
Abstract
Optical control of electron-generation sites has broadly enabled ultrafast nanoscale imaging, spectroscopy, and functional control. Existing approaches achieve nanoscale site selectivity by shaping localised optical fields around nanostructures, thereby limiting independent site selectivity within the same local-field hotspot. Here, using a single-molecule electron emitter, we show that site selectivity can instead be encoded in the electronic excitation pathway, enabling subnanometric control of electron birth sites within a common local-field hotspot. By tuning the photon energy, we selectively access different groups of molecular states whose combined contributions define emission channels with distinct spatial character, thereby reversibly switching the electron birth site within the same emitter. The switching is read out directly in the far-field emission pattern and occurs upon changing the photon energy, but not upon varying the intensity or polarisation. Our results establish optical birth-site selectivity that is not dictated by the local-field distribution, opening a route to electron birth-site control through the electronic excitation pathway.
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BibTeX
@misc{yanagisawa2026photonenergyprogrammable,
title = {{Photon-energy-programmable subnanometric electron birth-site control}},
author = {Hirofumi Yanagisawa and Abhisek Sinha and Ravi Kumar and Hiroki Funata and Pasquale Barbato and Neill Lambert and Hirotaka Kitoh-Nishioka},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.28286},
eprint = {2605.28286},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.28286},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Photon-energy-programmable subnanometric electron birth-site control
AU - Hirofumi Yanagisawa
AU - Abhisek Sinha
AU - Ravi Kumar
AU - Hiroki Funata
AU - Pasquale Barbato
AU - Neill Lambert
AU - Hirotaka Kitoh-Nishioka
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.28286
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.28286
AB - Optical control of electron-generation sites has broadly enabled ultrafast nanoscale imaging, spectroscopy, and functional control. Existing approaches achieve nanoscale site selectivity by shaping localised optical fields around nanostructures, thereby limiting independent site selectivity within the same local-field hotspot. Here, using a single-molecule electron emitter, we show that site selectivity can instead be encoded in the electronic excitation pathway, enabling subnanometric control of electron birth sites within a common local-field hotspot. By tuning the photon energy, we selectively access different groups of molecular states whose combined contributions define emission channels with distinct spatial character, thereby reversibly switching the electron birth site within the same emitter. The switching is read out directly in the far-field emission pattern and occurs upon changing the photon energy, but not upon varying the intensity or polarisation. Our results establish optical birth-site selectivity that is not dictated by the local-field distribution, opening a route to electron birth-site control through the electronic excitation pathway.
ER -