Vibrational ladder-climbing in surface-enhanced, ultrafast infrared spectroscopy

Abstract

In a recent work (J. Phys. Chem. C 2016, 120, 3350–3359), we have introduced the concept of surface-enhanced, two-dimensional attenuated total reflectance (2D ATR IR) spectroscopy with modest enhancement factors (<50) using small plasmonic noble metal nanoparticles at solid–liquid interfaces. Here, we show that employment of almost continuous noble metal layers results in significantly stronger enhancement factors in 2D ATR IR signals (>450), which allows for multi-quantum IR excitation of adsorbed molecules, a process known as “vibrational ladder-climbing”, even for weakly absorbing (ε < 200 M⁻¹ cm⁻¹) nitrile IR labels. We show that it is possible to deposit up to four quanta of vibrational energy in the respective functional group. Based on these results, optical near-fields of plasmonic nanostructures may pave the way for future investigations involving ultrafast dynamics of highly excited vibrational states or surface-sensitive coherent control experiments of ground-state reactions at solid–liquid interfaces.