Exploring the chemical enhancement for surface-enhanced Raman scattering with Au bowtie nanoantennas.
Single metallic bowtie nanoantennas provide a controllable environment for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of adsorbed molecules. Bowties have experimentally measured electromagnetic enhancements, enabling estimation of chemical enhancement for both the bulk and the few-molecule regime. Strong fluctuations of selected Raman lines imply that a small number of p-mercaptoaniline molecules on a single bowtie show chemical enhancement >10(7), much larger than previously believed, likely due to charge transfer between the Au surface and the molecule. This chemical sensitivity of SERS has significant implications for ultra-sensitive detection of single molecules.
Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, California 94305, USA.
David P
DP
Fromm
Arvind
A
Sundaramurthy
Anika
A
Kinkhabwala
P James
PJ
Schuck
Gordon S
GS
Kino
W E
WE
Moerner
D000042:Absorption; D000814:Aniline Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D008628:Mercury / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D009942:Organometallic Compounds / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*
D000814:Aniline Compounds; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D008628:Mercury; C023650:aniline