Abstract
In this paper, we present a convenient and economical method to fabricate a silver (Ag)-film semi-coated polystyrene (PS) nanosphere array substrate for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The SERS substrate was fabricated using the modified self-assembled method combined with the vacuum thermal evaporation method. By changing the thickness of the Ag film, the surface morphology of the Ag film coated on the PS nanospheres can be adjusted to obtain the optimized localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) effect. The 3D-finite-difference time-domain simulation results show that the SERS substrate with an Ag film thickness of 10 nm has tens of times the electric field intensity enhancement. The Raman examination results show that the SERS substrate has excellent reliability and sensitivity using rhodamine-6G (R6G) and rhodamine-B (RB) as target analytes, and the Raman sensitivity can reach 10−10 M. Meanwhile, the SERS substrate has excellent uniformity based on the Raman mapping result. The Raman enhancement factor of the SERS substrate was estimated to be 5.1 × 106. This kind of fabrication method for the SERS substrate may be used in some applications of Raman examination.
Highlights
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) [1], as one of the most promising spectroscopy techniques, has received much attention
The SERS substrate was fabricated based on the modified self-assembled method combined with the vacuum thermal evaporation method
The SERS substrate was fabricated based on the modified self-assembled method and the vacuum thermal evaporation method
Summary
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) [1], as one of the most promising spectroscopy techniques, has received much attention. To evaluate the performance of SERS substrates, the electric field enhancement characteristic is a key parameter, but the reliability, uniformity, economic aspect, and throughput should be considered [9,10], simultaneously. Compared with the methods mentioned above, the electric field enhancement characteristic of the SERS substrate. Many works focus mainly on modifying the surface morphology of the dielectric nanospheres using various etching technologies to enhance the electric field as much as possible after coating the noble metallic film, but little attention has been paid to the effect of metallic film thickness on the electric field enhancement characteristic. The 3D-finite-difference time-domain simulation results show that the SERS substrate with an Ag film thickness of 10 nm has tens of times the electric field intensity enhancement. The SERS substrate has excellent uniformity based on the Raman mapping result, and the Raman enhancement factor of the SERS substrate was estimated to be 5.1 × 106
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