Multipitched Diffraction Gratings for Surface Plasmon Resonance-Enhanced Infrared Reflection Absorption Spectroscopy.

Abstract

We demonstrate the application of metal-coated diffraction gratings possessing multiple simultaneous pitch values for surface enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy. SEIRA increases the magnitude of vibrational signals in infrared measurements by one of several mechanisms, most frequently involving the enhanced electric field associated with surface plasmon resonance (SPR). While the majority of SEIRA applications to date have employed nanoparticle-based plasmonic systems, recent advances have shown how various metals and structures lead to similar signal enhancement. Recently, diffraction grating couplers have been demonstrated as a highly tunable platform for SEIRA. Indeed, gratings are an experimentally advantageous platform due to the inherently tunable nature of surface plasmon excitation at these surfaces since both the grating pitch and incident angle can be used to modify the spectral location of the plasmon resonance. In this work, we use laser interference lithography (LIL) to fabricate gratings possessing multiple pitch values by subjecting photoresist-coated glass slides to repetitive exposures at varying orientations. After metal coating, these gratings produced multiple, simultaneous plasmon peaks associated with the multipitched surface, as identified by infrared reflectance measurements. These plasmon peaks could then be coupled to vibrational modes in thin films to provide localized enhancement of infrared signals. We demonstrate the flexibility and tunability of this platform for signal enhancement. It is anticipated that, with further refinement, this approach might be used as a general platform for broadband enhancement of infrared spectroscopy.