Surface-Enhanced Hyper-Raman Spectra of Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, Thymine, and Uracil

Using picosecond excitation at 1064 nm, surface-enhanced hyper-Raman scattering (SEHRS) spectra of the nucleobases adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil with two different types of silver nanoparticles were obtained. Comparing the SEHRS spectra with SERS data from the identical samples excited at 532 nm and with known infrared spectra, the major bands in the spectra are assigned. Due to the different selection rules for the one- and two-photon excited Raman scattering, we observe strong variation in relative signal strengths of many molecular vibrations obtained in SEHRS and SERS spectra. The two-photon excited spectra of the nucleobases are found to be very sensitive with respect to molecule-nanoparticle interactions. Using both the SEHRS and SERS data, a comprehensive vibrational characterization of the interaction of nucleobases with silver nanostructures can be achieved.