Taking the Plunge: Nanoscale Chemical Imaging of Functionalized Gold Triangles in H2O via TERS

Abstract: We demonstrate fast (0.25 s/pixel) nanoscale chemical imaging in aqueous solution via tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS), with sub-15 nm spatial resolution. The substrate consists of 4-mercaptobenzonitrile-functionalized monocrystalline gold triangular platelets immersed in H2O, which we map using a gold-coated AFM probe illuminated using a 633 nm laser source. We find that the recorded TERS images trace the enhanced local optical fields that are sustained towards the edges and corners of the triangles. In effect, we directly map local optical fields of a plasmonic substrate in aqueous solution through molecular TERS. Overall, our described platform and approach may generally be used for chemical and biological imaging, and potentially, to follow chemical transformations at solid-liquid interfaces through TERS.