Investigation of SERS Frequency Fluctuations Relevant to Sensing and Catalysis

The excitation of plasmon resonances on nanoparticles generates locally enhanced electric fields commonly used for sensing applications and energetic charge carriers can drive chemical transformations as photocatalysts. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra from mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA) adsorbed to gold nanoparticles (AuNP) and silica encapsulated gold nanoparticles (AuNP@silica) can be used to assess the impact of energetic charge carriers on the observed signal. Measurements were recorded using a traditional point focused Raman spectroscopy and a wide-field spectral imaging approach to assess changes in the spectra of the different particles at increasing power density. The wide-field approach provides an increase in sampling statistics and shows evidence of SERS frequency fluctuations from MBA at low power densities, where it is commonly difficult to record spectra from a point focused spot. The increased spectral resolution of the point spectroscopy measurement provides improved peak identification and the ability to correlate the frequency fluctuations to charged intermediate species. Interestingly, our work suggests that isolated nanoparticles may undergo frequency fluctuations more readily than aggregates.