Plasmon-driven surface catalysis in hybridized plasmonic gap modes

Plasmon-driven surface catalytic (PDSC) reaction in Ag/Au nanoparticle monomer or dimer-film gaps are experimentally and theoretically investigated, using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and finite element method. The variation of SERS spectra in different nano gaps of nanoparticle-film systems indicated the PDSC reaction was largely depended on the number of nanoparticles. The higher Raman intensity of p,p′-dimercaptoazobenzene (DMAB) in dimer-film nanogap was because effective coupling of induced image charge on metal film in hybridized plasmonic gap mode, which was confirmed by the electric field distribution. Furthermore, the influence of material and wavelength was also studied to obtain the optimal experimental condition for best surface catalysis in hybridized plasmonic gap mode. Our studies in this common configuration of plasmonic nanostructure are of great significance not only in the field of catalysis on metal surface but also in other surface plasmon fields such as senor, photon detection, water splitting, etc.