Addressing intramolecular vibrational redistribution in a single molecule through pump and probe surface-enhanced vibrational spectroscopy

Abstract: The development of accurate tools to characterize Intramolecular Vibrational Redistribution (IVR) is of major interest in chemistry. In this context, surface-enhanced vibrational spectroscopies stand up as well-established techniques to study molecular vibrational lines and populations with a sensitivity that can reach the singe-molecule level. However, to date, this possibility has not been fully developed to address IVR. Here, we establish a quantum mechanical framework based on molecular optomechanics that accounts for IVR, and adopt it to analyze strategies to optimize IVR characterization by vibrational spectroscopy. In particular, we model two different pump-and-probe configurations where the vibrational pumping is provided either by infrared laser illumination or by Stokes SERS. We show for the two pumping configurations the existence of clear signatures on the anti-Stokes SERS spectra of population transfer between coupled vibrational modes in a molecule. Our calculations adopt realistic molecular and SERS parameters, suggesting that these signatures of IVR are accessible at the single-molecule level with current experimental platforms.