Plasmonic Nanostructures for Surface Enhanced Nonlinear Spectroscopy and Direct Imaging of Plasmon Modes

Physical Chemistry Seminar Series

Surface enhanced vibrational spectroscopies based on plasmonic nanostructures demonstrate exquisite sensitivity towards the structure of surface-bound species and the ability to measure the vibrational spectrum of a single molecule. Despite the widespread adoption of surface enhanced spectroscopy, previous work has focused almost exclusively on linear spectroscopies leaving the application of surface enhancement to non-linear techniques unexplored. We are, therefore, examining surface enhanced hyper-Raman scattering (SEHRS) both as a prototypical non-linear spectroscopy and for its application to the study of surface bound species. Our group is also working to experimentally map electromagnetic hot-spots in single-molecule active nanostructures. We will discuss our recent experiments combining optical spectroscopy measurements with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) carried out in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM).

For more information contact Prof. Christine Payne (404-385-3125).