Review
Chemistry, Physical
Da Xu, Boqun Liang, Yaodong Xu, Ming Liu
Summary: Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) imaging is a super-resolution technique that combines the advantages of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and scanning probe microscopy (SPM). It is an essential nanospectroscopic characterization technique for various fields. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art TERS probe designs, including their working mechanisms, configurations, and performance. It also discusses emerging novel TERS probe designs and their critical aspects, as well as the latest TERS applications and future perspectives.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Asia Sarycheva, Maruda Shanmugasundaram, Andrey Krayev, Yury Gogotsi
Summary: MXenes are extensively researched materials due to their unique combination of high electronic conductivity and hydrophilic surface. In this study, nanoscale Raman imaging of single-layer and few-layer Hakes of Ti3C2Tx MXene is reported using tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS). The absolute intensities of MXene peaks decrease with increasing number of layers, while the relative intensity of certain bands increases. The peak positions of the main MXene bands do not significantly change with different layers, suggesting weak coupling between the MXene layers. The study also reveals the stiffening of vibrations over the wrinkles in MXene Hakes.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Kathrin Kroth, Philip Klement, Limei Chen, Sangam Chatterjee, Peter J. Klar
Summary: Tip-induced optical spectroscopy can overcome the resolution limits of conventional optical techniques for studying sub-nm sized objects. However, there are restrictions for spatially extended samples due to perturbations caused by the tip. Additionally, the optical response is influenced by the type of tip and substrate used.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Dusan Mrdenovic, Zi-Xi Tang, Yashashwa Pandey, Weitao Su, Yao Zhang, Naresh Kumar, Renato Zenobi
Summary: Noninvasive and label-free analysis of cell membranes at the nanoscale can be achieved with tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), which provides submolecular resolution in the vertical direction. TERS spectra of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayers and human cell membranes exhibit unique spectral features, primarily originating from vibrations of the CH3 groups in the choline headgroup. These reproducible TERS results demonstrate the ultrahigh sensitivity of TERS for nanoanalysis of lipid membranes under ambient conditions.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yang Luo, Alberto Martin-Jimenez, Rico Gutzler, Manish Garg, Klaus Kern
Summary: Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) allows for the tracing of vibrational fingerprints of molecules and low-dimensional materials with subnanometer resolution. The localization of light in the plasmonic nanocavity of the STM enables high spatial resolution in STM-TERS. However, the temporal resolution is currently limited. In this study, stable TERS measurements were demonstrated from subphthalocyanine (SubPc) molecules excited by 500 fs long laser pulses in a low-temperature (LT) ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) STM. The intensity of the TERS signal scales linearly with the increasing flux of the laser pulses and exponentially with the decreasing gap-size of the plasmonic nanocavity. Furthermore, the characteristic features of TERS excited with ultrashort pulses were compared with those excited with a continuous-wave (CW) laser.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Robin R. Jones, Cornelia Miksch, Hyunah Kwon, Coosje Pothoven, Kristina R. Rusimova, Maarten Kamp, Kedong Gong, Liwu Zhang, Tim Batten, Brian Smith, Alejandro V. Silhanek, Peer Fischer, Daniel Wolverson, Ventsislav K. Valev
Summary: Against the backdrop of current healthcare and climate emergencies, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is gaining popularity as a technique for identifying and fingerprinting molecules in various substances. Researchers have investigated plasmonic nanohelices and found that they possess excellent SERS properties. These nanohelices can be produced at a low cost, exhibit strong and uniform Raman enhancement effects, and are anticipated to have broad applications in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopies and material science.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Shota Takahashi, Atsunori Sakurai, Tatsuto Mochizuki, Toshiki Sugimoto
Summary: In this study, we achieved significant enhancement of the nonlinear optical response in a tip-substrate plasmonic nanocavity. By focusing on the near-field second harmonics of a wavelength-tunable femtosecond laser, we demonstrated that the enhancement of nonlinear optical effects occurs over a broad wavelength range from visible to infrared. We also discovered that the sharpness of the tip apexes and the surface geometry of the tip shafts both affect the broadband nonlinear optical property.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Joachim Jelken, Maria O. Aviles, Francois Lagugne-Labarthet
Summary: We report on the flower-like surface structure of tungsten disulfide (WS2) flakes grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). This structure is the result of a peculiar one-step growth process during CVD that allows control of sulfur concentration. The mechanical, chemical, and electronic properties of the flakes vary depending on the microscale domains, which were studied using various measurement techniques.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Jun-Xian Zhang, Qiu-Shi Meng, Gong Chen, Yang Zhang, Yao Zhang, Zhen-Chao Dong
Summary: Recent developments in tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) have demonstrated its capabilities in lateral resolution down to the Ångström scale and chemical identification of adjacent molecules at the submolecular level. However, the vertical resolution ability of TERS, especially in resolving vertical heteromolecular structures, remains elusive. In this work, a bilayer-molecular system was constructed to quantitatively investigate the vertical resolving ability of TERS. The presence of a molecule at the tip apex was found to influence the local plasmonic field and extend the vertical detection depth, demonstrating the capability of TERS to resolve vertical heteromolecular structures.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Chih-Feng Wang, Mikhail Zamkov, Patrick Z. El-Khoury
Summary: This study achieves record spatial resolution in ambient tip-enhanced photoluminescence (TEPL) from CdSe/ZnS semiconductor quantum dots by taking advantage of surface roughness at the apex of a sputtered plasmonic gold probe. The reproducibility of observations is demonstrated using different plasmonic probes and samples. The high spatial resolution in TEPL is attributed to field enhancement at the metal tip-fluorophore interface.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ryo Kato, Toki Moriyama, Takayuki Umakoshi, Taka-aki Yano, Prabhat Verma
Summary: In this study, long-duration TERS imaging of a micrometer-sized WS2 sample was achieved in a reproducible manner, enabling the detection of nanoscale defects and rare optical signals in large area 2D materials.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Meitong Nie, Yuming Zhao, Wonil Nam, Junyeob Song, Wenqi Zhu, Henri J. Lezec, Amit Agrawal, Wei Zhou
Summary: The research introduces nanolaminate plasmonic nanocavities on 3D vertical nanopillar arrays for broadband SERS operation with large enhancement factors. It shows uniform SERS performance and demonstrates nanoscale broadband SERS operation at the single MIM nanocavity level. Numerical studies reveal that the nanolaminate plasmonic nanocavities can support multiple hybridized plasmonic modes for concentrating optical fields across a broadband wavelength range.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Chih-Feng Wang, Patrick Z. El-Khoury
Summary: The study reveals that nonlinear optical processes can be enhanced at plasmonic tip-sample nanojunctions, allowing for high-spatial-resolution chemical analysis through enhanced spectroscopies.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Gary Sean Cooney, David Talaga, Vicky Ury-Thiery, Yann Fichou, Yuhan Huang, Sophie Lecomte, Sebastien Bonhommeau
Summary: In this study, TERS was used to visualize the spatial distribution of adenine, protein secondary structure, and amino acids in single polyadenosine-induced tau fibrils. The findings provide insights into the incorporation of the polyadenosine cofactor in the fibril structure and its interaction with amino acids. TERS proves to be a powerful technique for studying cofactors in individual tau fibrils and their mode of interaction.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ben Yang, Gong Chen, Atif Ghafoor, Yu-Fan Zhang, Xian-Biao Zhang, Hang Li, Xiao-Ru Dong, Rui-Pu Wang, Yang Zhang, Yao Zhang, Zhen-Chao Dong
Summary: We investigated the chemical effects on Raman signals in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) through tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) of a single planar ZnPc molecule with controlled contact environments. TERS signals were enhanced when a tip-molecule point contact was made, due to the generation of a ground-state charge-transfer induced vertical Raman polarizability and the strong vertical plasmonic field in the nanocavity. However, TERS signals were quenched when ZnPc was chemisorbed flatly on substrates, attributed to the Raman polarizability screening effect induced by interfacial dynamic charge transfer.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Micah Raab, Jeffrey C. Becca, Jeongyun Heo, Chang-Keun Lim, Alexander Baev, Lasse Jensen, Paras N. Prasad, Luis Velarde
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2019)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Pengchong Liu, Dhabih V. Chulhai, Lasse Jensen
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C
(2019)
Review
Physics, Applied
Xing Chen, Pengchong Liu, Lasse Jensen
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS D-APPLIED PHYSICS
(2019)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xing Chen, Pengchong Liu, Zhongwei Hu, Lasse Jensen
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2019)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Partha Pratim Pal, Pengchong Liu, Lasse Jensen
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL THEORY AND COMPUTATION
(2019)
Article
Chemistry, Applied
Inseok Chae, Syed M. Q. Bokhari, Xing Chen, Rui Zu, Ke Liu, Ali Borhan, Venkatraman Gopalan, Jeffrey M. Catchmark, Seong H. Kim
Summary: A method is reported to induce the parallel packing of bacterial cellulose microfibrils by applying unidirectional shear stress during synthesis and deposition. The driving force for alignment is explained with mathematical estimation of the shear stress. Evidence of the parallel alignment of crystalline cellulose I alpha domains was obtained using nonlinear optical spectroscopy techniques.
CARBOHYDRATE POLYMERS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Jeffrey C. Becca, Xing Chen, Lasse Jensen
Summary: In this study, an atomistic electrodynamics-quantum mechanical method was proposed to simulate the role of solvent in SERS, revealing the mechanism behind the solvent-induced enhancement of SERS. By implementing a cut-off based approach, the computational cost was reduced without sacrificing accuracy in describing the local environment of solvent molecules in SERS modeling.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Canyu Hu, Xing Chen, Jingxiang Low, Yaw-Wen Yang, Hao Li, Di Wu, Shuangming Chen, Jianbo Jin, He Li, Huanxin Ju, Chia-Hsin Wang, Zhou Lu, Ran Long, Li Song, Yujie Xiong
Summary: Imitating natural photosynthesis to synthesize hydrocarbon fuels is a viable strategy for solar-to-chemical energy conversion. Utilizing low-energy photons, especially near-infrared photons, has been a challenging aim to improve conversion efficiency. In this study, we report a broadband plasmon-induced CO2 reduction reaction with water, achieving a CH4 production rate of 0.55 mmol g(-1) h(-1) with 100% selectivity to hydrocarbon products under full-spectrum light illumination. The enhanced local electric field plays a crucial role in efficient multiphoton absorption and selective energy transfer, paving the way for low-energy photon utilization.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Correction
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Canyu Hu, Xing Chen, Jingxiang Low, Yaw-Wen Yang, Hao Li, Di Wu, Shuangming Chen, Jianbo Jin, He Li, Huanxin Ju, Chia-Hsin Wang, Zhou Lu, Ran Long, Li Song, Yujie Xiong
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Na Zhang, Yubing Si, Xing Chen, Xi Wang, Jiannian Yao
Summary: Carbon dioxide reduction is a promising strategy for generating valuable multi-carbon compounds. The single-atom Sc-doped Cu(111) surface shows excellent C2H4 selectivity due to the synergy of distinct adsorption sites. The Sc dopant promotes C-C dimerization via COCO, which is thermodynamically and kinetically favorable. This study provides insight into nanocatalyst design for reaction products with different chemical characters.
ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS
(2023)
