Gold Nanocone Array with Extensive Electromagnetic Fields for Highly Reproducible Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Measurements

Abstract

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a technique used to distinguish the constitution of disease-related biomarkers in liquid biopsies, such as exosomes and circulating tumor cells, without any recognition elements. Previous studies using metal nanoparticle aggregates and angular nanostructures have achieved the detection of various biomarkers owing to strong hot spots and electromagnetic (EM) fields by localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). Although these SERS platforms enable significant enhancement of Raman signals, they still have some problems with the fabrication reproducibility of platforms in obtaining reproducible SERS signals. Therefore, highly reproducible fabrication of SERS platforms is required. Here, we propose the application of a polymer-based gold (Au) nanocone array (Au NCA), which extensively generates an enhanced EM field near the Au NCA surface by LSPR. This approach was experimentally demonstrated using a 785 nm laser, typically used for SERS measurements, and showed excellent substrate-to-substrate reproducibility (relative standard deviation (RSD) < 6%) using an extremely simple fabrication procedure and very low laser energy. These results proved that a Au NCA can be used as a highly reproducible SERS measurement to distinguish the constitution of biomarkers.

Dielectrophoretic trapping of nanosized biomolecules on plasmonic nanohole arrays for biosensor applications: simple fabrication and visible-region detection

“…The Au NHAs are fabricated by the direct metal deposition method, which has already demonstrated high reproducibility in fabrication and detection in our previous study. 59 Herein, we demonstrate the simple fabrication of an Au NHA-based DEP device, and then challenge fast and reproducible particle/biomolecule trapping and detection in the visible region. 1a).…”