Laser & Optoelectronics Progress, Volume. 61, Issue 13, 1324002(2024)

Picocavity Plasmon-Enhanced Vibrational Spectroscopy of Single-Molecule Chemical Processes of 4,4'-Dimercaptoazobenzene

Biwen Chen1, Jing Long1、**, Wenhua Han3, Yichen Miao1, Hui Yi1, Wenwu Xu2, Yi Gao4, and Tian Yang1、*
Author Affiliations
  • 1State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of the Ministry of Education, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
  • 2Department of Physics, School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, Zhejiang , China
  • 3College of Energy Engineering, Xinjiang Institute of Engineering, Urumqi 830023, Xinjiang , China
  • 4Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
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    Raman scattering measurement technology based on plasmon enhancement mechanism can improve the Raman scattering cross-sections of molecules by several orders of magnitude. Accordingly, they have a wide range of application prospects for trace substance identification and tracking. Many previous studies have reported identification of single-molecules when the enhancement factor reaches ~1010. Measuring physical and chemical behaviors at the single-molecule level is expected to provide richer and more accurate results compared to measuring the statistical behavior of an ensemble of many molecules. This study uses a radially polarized laser to excite a picocavity hotspot in a longitudinally polarized plasmonic antenna. We achieve an accurate observation of the chemical processes of individual molecules using their vibrational spectra. In particular, we observe that 4-nitrobenzenethiol dimerized into 4,4'-dimercaptoazobenzene and that a single-molecule of the latter briefly switched from trans- to cis-conformation; it then desorbs from the gold atom and reverts to trans-conformation. This study preliminarily shows the power of picocavity plasmon-enhanced vibrational spectroscopy in investigating single-molecule chemical kinetics.

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    Biwen Chen, Jing Long, Wenhua Han, Yichen Miao, Hui Yi, Wenwu Xu, Yi Gao, Tian Yang. Picocavity Plasmon-Enhanced Vibrational Spectroscopy of Single-Molecule Chemical Processes of 4,4'-Dimercaptoazobenzene[J]. Laser & Optoelectronics Progress, 2024, 61(13): 1324002

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    Paper Information

    Category: Optics at Surfaces

    Received: Nov. 10, 2023

    Accepted: Dec. 1, 2023

    Published Online: Jul. 17, 2024

    The Author Email: Jing Long (longjing_sh@163.com), Tian Yang (tianyang@sjtu.edu.cn)

    DOI:10.3788/LOP232468

    CSTR:32186.14.LOP232468

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