Direct observation of individual charges and their dynamics on graphene by low-energy electron holography

Abstract

Visualizing individual charges confined to molecules and observing their dynamics with high spatial resolution is a challenge for advancing various fields in science, ranging from mesoscopic physics to electron transfer events in biological molecules. We show here, that the high sensitivity of low-energy electrons to local electric fields can be employed to directly visualize individual charged adsorbates and to study their behaviour in a quantitative way. This makes electron holography a unique probing tool for directly visualising charge distributions with a sensitivity of a fraction of an elementary charge. Moreover, spatial resolution in the nanometer range and fast data acquisition inherent to lens-less low-energy electron holography allows for direct visual inspection of charge transfer processes.