CaSTL Seminar by Zhongyue Luan

In the recent push toward single molecule spectroscopy and photochemistry, plasmonic nanostructures have emerged as an attractive and experimentally tractable design. The primary enhancement mechanism of the so-called “nantennas” arises from their ability to couple far-field radiation with molecular receivers, by confining the light in nm-scale junctions (“hotspots”). This small spatial confinement of radiation leads to enhancement factors large enough as to allow for single molecule detection. In addition to using the plasmon to amplify molecular signal, it can also be used to drive fascinating chemical processes such as charge transfer, molecular activation, and even photochemical reactions. Controlled formation of chemically-linked dimers with Hexa(ethylene glycol) dithiol was performed. ALD-functionalized Ag and Au dimers were constructed as the platform towards future study of photocatalytic reactions.