Visually Constructing the Chemical Structure of a Single Molecule by Scanning Raman Picoscopy

The strong spatial confinement of a nanocavity plasmonic field has made it possible to visualize the inner structure of a single molecule and even to distinguish its vibrational modes in real space. With such ever-improved spatial resolution, it is anticipated that full vibrational imaging of a mole...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2019-12
Main Authors: Zhang, Yao, Yang, Ben, Ghafoor, Atif, Zhang, Yang, Yu-Fan, Zhang, Rui-Pu, Wang, Jin-Long, Yang, Luo, Yi, Zhen-Chao, Dong, Hou, J G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemical bonds
Construction
Mapping
Microscopy
Molecular structure
Organic chemistry
Spatial resolution
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Summary:The strong spatial confinement of a nanocavity plasmonic field has made it possible to visualize the inner structure of a single molecule and even to distinguish its vibrational modes in real space. With such ever-improved spatial resolution, it is anticipated that full vibrational imaging of a molecule could be achieved to reveal molecular structural details. Here we demonstrate full Raman images of individual vibrational modes on the Ångstr\"om level for a single Mg-porphine molecule, revealing distinct characteristics of each vibrational mode in real space. Furthermore, by exploiting the underlying interference effect and Raman fingerprint database, we propose a new methodology for structural determination, coined as scanning Raman picoscopy, to show how such ultrahigh-resolution spectromicroscopic vibrational images can be used to visually assemble the chemical structure of a single molecule through a simple Lego-like building process.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1908.08720