We report a facile particle mediated aggregation protocol to synthesize "sea urchin"-like gold mesoparticles with tailored surface topography via a secondary nucleation and growth process. Surprisingly, these multitip Au mesoparticles are capable of self-assembling into monolayer or multiple layer arrays on Si substrates with a convincing reproducibility and homogeneity over large areas. Raman measurements show that these individual sea urchin-like multitipped gold mesoparticles exhibit a high enhancement of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In addition, the sea urchin-like mesoparticle arrays display a further enhancement of SERS by 1 or 2 orders of magnitude over the individual mesoparticle due to the formation of additional hot spots between the particles. The current protocol stands out as a potentially interesting approach for the fabrication of technologically important SERS-based sensors.

We propose a scheme to enhance near-UV band absorption of a rutile TiO(2) nanoparticle by placing Au nanoparticles in its neighborhood. The discrete-dipole approximation method was employed to calculate the absorption spectrum of pure rutile TiO(2) and that of TiO(2) mixed with Au nanoparticles. The results indicate that pure rutile TiO(2) has its maximum absorption located in the deep-UV band. With the existence of Au nanoparticles, a significant light harvesting effect occurs, and this maximum shifts to the near-UV band, where usual excitation wavelength falls.