Fabrication of silver nanoisland films by pulsed laser deposition for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Bogusław Budner,Bartosz Bartosewicz,Mariusz Kuźma,Barbara Nasiłowska,Malwina Liszewska,Bartłomiej J Jankiewicz

doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.89

Abstract

The results of studies on the fabrication and characterization of silver nanoisland films (SNIFs) using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and the evaluation of these films as potential surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates are reported. The SNIFs with thicknesses in a range of 4.7 ± 0.2 nm to 143.2 ± 0.2 nm were deposited under different conditions on silicon substrates. Size and morphology of the fabricated silver nanoislands mainly depend on the substrate temperature, and number and energy of the laser pulses. SERS properties of the fabricated films were evaluated by measuring SERS spectra of para-mercaptoaniline (pMA) molecules adsorbed on them. SERS enhancement factors are shown to depend on the SNIF morphology, which is modified by changes of the deposition conditions. The highest enhancement factor in the range of 105 was achieved for SNIFs that have oval and circular silver nanoislands with small distances between them.

Highlights

In recent years, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been intensively investigated as a sensing tool in many applications [1,2,3]
We investigated ten samples with silver nanoisland films deposited under different conditions, designated “A” to “I”
We have shown that pulsed laser deposition (PLD) with simultaneous heating of the substrate permits the controlled fabrication of silver nanoisland films with good SERS properties

Summary

Introduction

SERS has been intensively investigated as a sensing tool in many applications [1,2,3]. The average surface area of the obtained silver islands with the same number of laser pulses is smaller compared to the case of layer growth at a lower temperature. The narrowest distributions of the surface area of the silver nanoislands were obtained for samples A and H with SNIFs deposited using the smallest number of laser pulses.

Results

Conclusion