Nanostructure design for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy - prospects and limits
Abstract
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) allows single-molecule detection due to the strong field localization occurring at sharp bends or kinks of the metal-vacuum interface. An important question concerns the limits of the signal enhancement that can be achieved via a judicious design of the surface. By using a specific example of a technologically realizable nanopatterned surface, we demonstrate that while very high enhancement factors (~10^12) can be found for an ideal surface, these are unlikely to be achieved in laboratory samples, because even a minute, inevitable rounding-off strongly suppresses the enhancement, as well as shifts the optimal frequency. Our simulations indicate that the geometric enhancement factors are unlikely to exceed ~10^8 for real samples, and that it is necessary to consider the geometric uncertainty to reliably predict the frequency for maximum enhancement.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0806.2534,
title = {Nanostructure design for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy - prospects and limits},
author = {Sanshui Xiao and Niels Asger Mortensen and Antti-Pekka Jauho},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0806.2534},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
12 pages including 5 figures