Surface-Enhanced Raman and Fluorescence Spectroscopy with an All-Dielectric Metasurface

Abstract

Plasmonic substrates play a crucial role in the confinement and manipulation of localized electromagnetic fields at the nanoscale. The large electromagnetic field enhancement at metal/dielectric interfaces is widely exploited in surface-enhanced fluorescence (SEF) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopies. Despite the advantage of near-field enhancement, unfortunately, in metals, the large absorption at optical frequencies induces local heating of the analyte fluid with possible damage of the biological material. In addition, in SEF plasmonic substrates, spacer layers are necessary to minimize undesired fluorescence quenching due to nonradiative decay, which strongly depends on the distance between molecules and metallic substrates. Therefore, the possibility of managing surface electromagnetic states mimicking surface-plasmon resonances in terms of spatial localization, high-field intensity, and dispersion characteristics, while avoiding metallic losses is of great interest. However, di...