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Optical microscopy has played an enabling role in experimental observation, particularly the biological sciences. The desire for observing increasingly finer details has pushed instrument development toward the limit of spatial resolution. By using a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM), it has become possible to probe optical phenomena with sub-atomic resolution. Such capability provides a new window for viewing molecular properties, including the molecular dynamics after the injection of an electron at a specific point of the molecule. In "molecular acupuncture", the way the molecule behaves can be controlled by pinpointing the specific part of the molecule that is initially perturbed. Specific examples of such control include the spatial dependence of single molecule fluorescence and the primary step in reductive reactions. |