Phys.org  August 29, 2019 Selective bond cleavage via vibrational excitation is the key to active control over molecular reactions. However, the practical implementation in condensed phases have been hampered to date by poor excitation efficiency due to fast vibrational relaxation. Researchers in Japan fabricated tiny gold antennae, each 300 nanometers wide, and illuminated them with infrared lasers. When infrared light of the right frequency was present, the electrons in the antennae oscillated back creating plasmonic resonance. The plasmonic resonance focused the laser’s energy on nearby molecules, which started vibrating. The vibration was further boosted by shaping the waveform of the […]