22pm1-F3 Lamellar-like metallic structures for surface enhanced Raman scattering

Abstract

Raman scattering spectroscopy is one of the method to detect vibrational modes of molecules. These detected modes are applied to determine the chemical bonds and crystal orientations. For over years, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy with strong electromagnetic enhancement has been studied to increase the sensitivity to the vibrational modes. To enhance the SERS effect, we propose the small nano-gaps between noble metals from two-dimensional surface to three-dimensional structure to increase the effective SERS surface area. To realize the small nano-gaps in three-dimensional structure, two types of techniques were applied. One was layer by layer (LbL) fabrication technique and the other was high aspect ratio metallic nano-fin fabrication technique. Through the experimental study with Rhodamine 6G (0.020 wt%), our lamellar-like metallic structures showed 50 times stronger SERS intensity compared to a bare gold film.