A fabrication technique is proposed
based on tip-based
ultrasonic
vibration-assisted scratching (UVAS) combined with wet chemical etching.
UVAS induced a deeper subsurface damage of the machined nanostructure
than the conventional scratching (CS), obtaining a high depth-to-width
ratio nanostructure after hydrofluoric acid etching. Furthermore,
the tip wear for UVAS was lesser than that for CS owing to the small
friction of UVAS. Furthermore, periodic nanograting structures, nanodot
arrays, and chiral nanostructures were machined by controlling the
UVAS trajectory. Moreover, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)
substrates with nanodot arrays and chiral structures were prepared
based on the transferred polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) model after Au
deposition. It was found that a large depth-to-width ratio SERS substrate
contributed to a high enhancement of the Raman signal. A maximum enhancement
factor of 4.03 × 105 could be obtained on an optimal
nanodot array SERS substrate when measuring 10–5 mol/L rhodamine 6G (R6G). The circular dichroism (CD) spectra of
the chiral nanostructures were revealed through the finite element
method simulation. Moreover, the multipole resonance led to the CD
enhancement of the chiral nanostructures. Furthermore, the chiral
enantiomers (l- and d-cysteines) were tested with
the SERS-active chiral nanostructures, which can be recognized using
the chiral SERS substrates directly. Thus, the proposed method showed
great potential in chiral applications such as chiral sensing and
label-free detection.