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

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.