Recent advances in inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy

Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS) based on scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) opens a new avenue for vibrational spectroscopy at single bond level. Since its birth, STM-IETS has been widely used for chemical identification and investigating the intra-and inter-molecular interactions as well as chemical reactions. In this review, we mainly focus on the new development and application of STM-IETS in the past decade. After introducing the basic theoretical background of IETS, we will discuss the recent advances of STM-IETS as vibrational spectroscopy and microspectroscopy, with emphasis on the ability of probing weak intermolecular interactions. The coupling of inelastic tunneling electrons to other elementary excitations, such as rotation, phonon, spin, plasmon, photon, etc., will be also briefly reviewed. In the end, we present a perspective for the future directions and challenges of STM-IETS. The goal of this review is to demonstrate the versatility of STM-IETS and inspire new applications in interdisciplinary fields.