Publication Date
3-2020
Department
Ames Laboratory; Physics and Astronomy
Campus Units
Ames Laboratory, Physics and Astronomy
OSTI ID+
1604072
Report Number
IS-J 10174
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevApplied.13.034020
Journal Title
Physical Review Applied
Volume Number
13
Issue Number
3
First Page
034020
Abstract
We propose a method for ultrasensitive infrared (IR) vibrational spectroscopy of molecules with nanoscale footprints by combining the tip enhancement of a scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM) and the plasmon enhancement of breathing-mode (BM) plasmon resonances of graphene nanodisks (GNDs). To demonstrate this, we develop a quantitative model that is capable of computing accurately the s-SNOM signals of nanoscale samples. With our modeling, we show that the s-SNOM tip can effectively excite gate-tunable BM plasmonic resonances in GNDs with strong field enhancement and sensitive dependence on the size of GND. Moreover, we demonstrate that the intense electric field of tip-excited plasmonic BMs can strongly enhance the IR vibrational modes of molecules. As a result, IR vibrational signatures of individual molecular particles with sizes down to 1–2 nm are readily observable by s-SNOM. Our study sheds light on future ultrasensitive IR biosensing that takes advantage of both the tip and plasmon enhancement.
DOE Contract Number(s)
AC02-07CH11358
Language
en
Department of Energy Subject Categories
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Publisher
Iowa State University Digital Repository, Ames IA (United States)