Plasmonic nanojunctions effectively confine optical fields on the Å scale, opening the atomistic limit in optical microscopy. Seeing an atom, a single chemical bond, imaging the vibrational normal modes inside one molecule, seeing intramolecular currents, and seeing sound are among the recent observations made in our laboratory under the rubric of tip-enhanced Raman spectro-microscopy (TER-sm).  I will use these examples to expand on the multiple facets of atomistically confined plasmons. As light, the momentum uncertainty associated with spatial confinement allows the simultaneous energy and momentum matching conditions required to see dispersive acoustic phonons – to see sound. As fields, the dramatic enhancement through confinement allows detection of the feeble Raman effect from individual molecules, giving access to the electro-mechanical machinery and opto-electronic circuitry of individual molecules. As cavity photons, superpositions of only two Fock states can be prepared and maintained. And since the atomistic near-field is in the quantum tunneling limit, tunneling plasmons can be shown to carry the TERS signal. The Å-scale in optical microscopy is accompanied by the rich photophysics of plasmonic nanojunctions.

Spectromicroscopy in the atomistic near-field

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.