title: Effect of sample and substrate electric properties on the electric field enhancement at the apex of SPM nanotips.
abstract: Finite element (FE) models were built to define the optimal experimental conditions for tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) of thin samples. TERS experimental conditions were mimicked by including in the FE models dielectric or metallic substrates with thin dielectric samples and by considering the wavelength dependence of the dielectric properties for the metallic materials. Electromagnetic coupling between the substrate/sample and the SPM tips led to dramatic changes of both the spatial distribution and magnitude of the scattered electric field which depended on the substrate dielectric permittivity and excitation wavelength. Raman scattering as high as 10(8) with a spatial resolution of approximately 8 nm was estimated for gold SPM tips and gold substrate when excitation is performed at 532 nm (near-resonance wavelength). For dielectric samples (approximately 4 nm thick), the enhancement of Raman scattering intensity is estimated at approximately 10(5); this does not depend significantly on the sample dielectric permittivity for dielectric samples. These results suggest that TERS experimental conditions should be estimated and optimized for every individual application considering the geometric factors and electric properties of the materials involved. Such optimizations could enlarge the range of applications for TERS to samples eliciting weaker intrinsic Raman scattering, such as biological samples.
authors.affiliation: University of Edinburgh, School of Engineering and Electronics, The King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, The United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ioan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Notingher
authors.forename: Alistair
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elfick
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D025802:Electric Capacitance; D017097:Electric Impedance; D004867:Equipment Design; D020527:Microscopy, Scanning Probe / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000295:instrumentation*