Effect of hybrid field coupling in nanostructured surfaces on anisotropic signal detection in nanoscale infrared spectroscopic imaging methods

Abstract

Anisotropic intensity distributions on nanostructured surfaces and polarization-sensitive spectra have been observed in a number of nanoscale infrared spectroscopic imaging methods, including nano-FTIR [Bakir et al., Molecules, 2020, 25, 4295], photothermal induced resonance (PTIR) [Waeytens et al., Analyst, 2021, 146], tapping AFM-IR [Hondl et al., ACS Meas. Sci. Au, 2025, 5, 469; Luo et al., Appl. Phys. Lett., 2022, 121, 23330], infrared photoinduced force microscopy (IR-PiFM, PiF-IR) [Anindo et al., J. Phys. Chem. C, 2025, 129, 4517; Shcherbakov et al., Rev Methods Primers, 2025, 5, 1; Ali et al., Anal. Chem., 2025, 97, 23914] and peak force infrared microscopy (PFIR) [Xie et al., J. Phys. Chem. C, 2022, 126, 8393; Anindo et al., J. Phys. Chem. C, 2025, 129, 4517]. A recent work combining modeling and experiment demonstrated that the hybrid field coupling of the IR illumination E0 with a polymer nanosphere and a metallic AFM probe is nearly as strong as the plasmonic coupling in case of a gold nanosphere [Anindo et al., J. Phys. Chem. C, 2025, 129, 4517]. For p-polarized illumination, this results in enhanced IR absorption on the surface perpendicular to the propagation of E0 which can explain the observed anisotropic intensity distribution. An additional anisotropy may be introduced by aligned surface molecules with oriented vibrational transition moments [Bakir et al., Molecules, 2020, 25, 4295; Luo et al., Appl. Phys. Lett., 2022, 121, 23330]. PiF-IR is strongly surface sensitive combining an unprecedented spatial resolution < 5 nm with high spectral resolution [Shcherbakov et al., Rev Methods Primers, 2025, 5, 1; Ali et al., Anal. Chem., 2025, 97, 23914], which allows, for example, to visualize nanoscale chemical variation on the surface of bacteria cells affected by antimicrobial interaction [Ali et al., Anal. Chem., 2025, 97, 23914]. We compare PiF-IR hyperspectra of aligned perylene Langmuir Blodgett monolayers on nanostructured and planar gold substrates and use quantum chemical calculations of the oriented vibrational oscillators to interpret the observations.