Nanohole arrays in chemical analysis: manufacturing methods and applications

Abstract

Since the last decade, nanohole arrays have emerged from an interesting optical phenomenon to the development of applications in photophysical studies, photovoltaics and as a sensing template for chemical and biological analyses. Numerous methodologies have been designed to manufacture nanohole arrays, including the use of focus ion beam milling, soft-imprint lithography, colloidal lithography and, more recently, modified nanosphere lithography (NSL). With NSL or colloidal lithography, the experimental conditions control the density of the nanosphere mask and, thus, the aspect of the nanohole arrays. Low surface coverage of the nanosphere mask produces disordered nanoholes. Ordered nanohole arrays are obtained with a densely packed nanosphere mask in combination with electrochemical deposition of the metal, glancing angle deposition (GLAD) or etching of the nanospheres prior to metal deposition. A review of these methodologies is presented here with an emphasis on the optical properties of nanoholes interesting in analytical chemistry. In particular, applications of these novel plasmonic materials will be demonstrated as substrates for a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and in electrochemistry with nano-patterned electrodes.

Linear and Planar Periodic Arrays of Metallic Nanospheres: Fabrication, Optical Properties and Applications

“…3 However, this technique can be rather slow in the fabrication process of large pattern areas (as for EBL, only small areas of the order of about 10 4 µm 2 can be fabricated with a reasonable cost). 4 …”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] In this part we generally discuss the fabrication of ordered arrays of nanoparticles, emphasizing the possibility of producing arrays of nanospheres.…”

Nanofabricated plasmonic nano-bio hybrid structures in biomedical detection

“…NSL advantages include low-cost, high-throughput, compatibility with many materials, and the capability of producing wellordered arrays on different substrates [105] . Nanostructures such as nanopillars [106] , nanohole arrays [107] , nanowire arrays [108] , nanobowls [109] , nanotriangles [104] , nanorings [110] , and nanocrescents [49] have been fabricated successfully for LSPR and SERS applications. However, NSL has several disadvantages.…”

Morphological and Structural Control of Organic Monolayer Colloidal Crystal Based on Plasma Etching and Its Application in Fabrication of Ordered Gold Nanostructured Arrays

“…Generally, SF 6 , O 2 and Ar are used as the reactive gases. Plasma bombardment can produce an isotropic etching process, and induce size's reduction of the PS spheres on the substrate but keep the hexagonally arranged structure of the PS's spheres.…”

“…Periodically arranged nanostructured arrays are an important basis of next-generation devices and have potential applications in fields such as optics [1], electronics [2], optoelectronics [3], information storage [4], super-hydrophobicity [5], biological and chemical sensing [6], and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based devices [7][8][9]. Thus far, there have been many methods developed to fabricate these arrays, including aluminum oxide (AAO) template technique [10,11], nano-imprint lithography [12], electron beam ligthography [13] and colloidal lithography [14][15][16], etc.…”