Lin, Qianqi;
Hu, Shu;
Földes, Tamás;
Huang, Junyang;
Wright, Demelza;
Griffiths, Jack;
Elliott, Eoin;
... Baumberg, Jeremy J; + view all
(2022)
Optical suppression of energy barriers in single molecule-metal binding.
Science Advances
, 8
(25)
, Article eabp9285. 10.1126/sciadv.abp9285.
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Abstract
Transient bonds between molecules and metal surfaces underpin catalysis, bio/molecular sensing, molecular electronics, and electrochemistry. Techniques aiming to characterize these bonds often yield conflicting conclusions, while single-molecule probes are scarce. A promising prospect confines light inside metal nanogaps to elicit in operando vibrational signatures through surface-enhanced Raman scattering. Here, we show through analysis of more than a million spectra that light irradiation of only a few microwatts on molecules at gold facets is sufficient to overcome the metallic bonds between individual gold atoms and pull them out to form coordination complexes. Depending on the molecule, these light-extracted adatoms persist for minutes under ambient conditions. Tracking their power-dependent formation and decay suggests that tightly trapped light transiently reduces energy barriers at the metal surface. This opens intriguing prospects for photocatalysis and controllable low-energy quantum devices such as single-atom optical switches.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Optical suppression of energy barriers in single molecule-metal binding |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1126/sciadv.abp9285 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abp9285 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S.Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10151330 |
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