We worked on different magnetic molecules containing 3d and 4f magnetic centers. Their growth on metallic surfaces, topographies, spin states, magnetic properties and electron transport were locally investigated by using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at temperatures down to 30mK. The main achievement of this dissertation reveals the abrupt switching of crystal fields during formation of molecular contacts.

In this work, a clear pathway is presented to achieve well-defined electronically decoupled chromophores from metallic leads without requiring additional insulating layers. To study such self-decoupled molecules, STM equipped with an efficient light detection setup has been used. Results show that the chromophores mounted on tripodal molecular platforms adsorbed on a gold surface present well-defined and efficient electroluminescence down to the single-molecule level.

This work presents a single molecular motor driven by the current in an STM. Its chiral functional group is supposed to perform a rotation in a preferred direction, proven by Binomial tests to be statistically significant. The rotation is proposedly driven by the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect (CISS). However, the studies of the rotation on the dependence on the lateral tip position, voltage and current indicate that he CISS is unlikely to cause the preferred rotation direction.

Complementary to scattering techniques, scanning tunnelling microscopy provides atomic-scale real space information about a material's electronic state of matter. State-of-the-art designs of a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) allow measurements at millikelvin temperatures with unprecedented energy resolution. Therefore, this instrument excels in probing the superconducting state at low temperatures and especially its local quasiparticle excitations as well as bosonic degrees of freedom.

This work presents the design and commissioning of a new low-temperature Scanning Tunnelling Microscope equipped with an innovative light collection setup using an integrated, micro-fabricated mirror tip. Commissioning experiments demonstrate the capabilities of this new instrument and reproduce known effects regarding gap plasmons on noble-metal surfaces. Furthermore, different contrasts in the plasmon-mediated light emission from Cobalt nano-islands on a Copper (111) substrate are reported.

In this book, hybrid systems based on yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG), three dimensional microwave cavity resonators, and superconducting transmon qubits, are investigated by continuous wave and pulsed microwave spectroscopy. Limitations to the magnetic linewidth in the quantum regime are identified and coherent exchange between a magnon and a superconducting qubit are demonstrated. Finally, a first step towards a strongly coupled hybrid system containing all three components is demonstrated.

In the last decades, superconducting devices have emerged as a promising platform for quantum technologies, including quantum sensing and quantum computing. Their key elements are Josephson junctions, which allow for coherent supercurrent tunneling between two weakly linked superconductors. If such a junction is extended in one direction to a long junction, the superconducting phase difference can vary in space and time and may allow for quantized phase windings that drive supercurrent vortices.