Quantitative Determination of the Raman Enhancement
of Ag<sub>30</sub>(CO)<sub>25</sub> and Ag<sub>50</sub>(CO)<sub>40</sub> Matrix Isolated in Solid Carbon Monoxide
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Abstract
Size-selected
Ag clusters in the range Ag<sub>3</sub>–Ag<sub>50</sub> were
prepared by sputtering a silver substrate, mass-selecting
Ag cation clusters using a Wien filter, neutralizing and matrix-isolating
them at cryogenic temperatures in solid CO. The Raman spectra of the
resulting silver-cluster carbonyls were recorded using excitation
wavelengths in the range 457.9 to 514.5 nm. For Ag<sub>30</sub> and
Ag<sub>50</sub>, the “adsorbed” carbon monoxide (which
we estimated to number ∼25 and ∼40, respectively) gave
rise to broad Raman bands centered at ∼2110 cm<sup>–1</sup>. Because both the metal cluster and the CO density were measured
quantitatively, a good estimate was computed for the increase in the
Raman scattering cross-section per CO molecule adsorbed on the silver
particle. For Ag<sub>50</sub> and 457.9 nm laser excitation, an enhancement
of ∼1850 was measured, which dropped to ∼1350 at 514.5
nm excitation. For Ag<sub>30</sub> (and 457.9 nm excitation) the enhancement
was ∼530. The enhancements of Ag<sub>3</sub>, Ag<sub>5</sub>, and Ag<sub>9</sub> were too low to measure accurately (i.e., <10).
Extrapolating the enhancements obtained with blue and green wavelengths
to the “plasmonic” band center, which for an Ag<sub>50</sub> cluster is expected to be at ∼370 nm, and assuming
the excitation band to be a Lorentzian with a fwhh of 0.8 eV, the
maximum Raman enhancement per CO ligand in Ag<sub>50</sub>CO<sub>40</sub> was estimated to be ∼12000, in good agreement with computed
results using a time-dependent density functional quantum calculation,
carried out on a Ag<sub>20</sub> cluster complex by Jensen et al.
(Jensen et al. Size-Dependence of the Enhanced Raman Scattering of
Pyridine Adsorbed on Ag<sub><i>n</i></sub> (<i>n</i> = 2–8, 20) Clusters. <i>J. Phys. Chem. C</i> <b>2007</b>, <i>111</i>, 4756–4764)