Photochemically patterned metal nanoparticle strontium barium niobate surfaces with tunable wettability, enhanced Raman scattering, and fluorescence emission

Abstract

Photochemically patterned metal nanoparticle Strontium Barium Niobate (SBN) surfaces are shown to exhibit tunable surface wettability which depends on the UV photodeposition time and the type of deposited metal nanoparticle, namely, silver or gold. Taking advantage of plasmonic properties of noble metal nanoparticles, we demonstrate enhanced Raman scattering and fluorescence emission of a probe molecule from the metal nanoparticle SBN surfaces. Further, ferroelectric lithography enables the creation of stable oppositely polarized ferroelectric domains, at the microscale, giving rise to spatially distinct metal particle deposition patterns and corresponding Raman responses. The results clearly demonstrate that metal nanoparticle/SBN surfaces suitable for enhanced chemical sensing can be designed using ferroelectric lithography and could have implications for realization of microfluidic or liquid droplet-based Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) sensors.