SERS application of propagating surface plasmon modes in 1D metallic gratings

Abstract

We investigate the influence of profile of one-dimensional (1D) Ag gratings on the enhancement factor (EF) of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). An optimized duty ratio of 1D Ag grating is found, and the SERS EF is experimentally obtained on the order of ~ 10 4 , while the finite-difference time-domain simulation shows that the SERS EF can be as high as ~ 10 6 . We ascribe the discrepancy between the simulated and the experimental results mainly to the fluctuation of Ag grating structure, which is confirmed by the topography measurement using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy.