Enhancement and band distortion of the IR absorption spectra of a methanol on silver evaporated thin films in UHV-ATR configuration

Enhanced infrared absorption spectra of methanol adsorbed on evaporated silver films were measured using Kretschmanns ATR configuration. Whereas the enhanced spectra were recordable using p-polarized radiation alone when the metal film was continuous, it was obtainable using both the p-polarized and s-polarized radiations from island films. Band distortion was also measured for changing incident angle and metal thickness. Furthermore, when film with silver of intermediate thickness was used, great distortion of the absorption band was observed. The relation between the anomalous absorption by the silver film and the band distortion was indicated.