We study and control optical properties with atomic precision.

What does a single molecule look like? How can we excite it and control its emission? How can we build more complex molecular structures “by hand”? How can we tune the quantum properties of light with atomic precision? In our research team, we answer these questions using the combination of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) with optics. This way, we bring the best of the two worlds together, the sub-nm resolution of STM, and all the information carried by photons to study optics at the atomic scale. Using this method we learn previously inaccessible details about mechanisms like light-harvesting, photosynthesis, and electron-to-photon conversion. We are based at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany.