title: Excitation of local field enhancement on silicon nanowires.
abstract: The interaction between light and reduced-dimensionality silicon attracts significant interest due to the possibilities of designing nanoscaled optical devices, highly cost-efficient solar cells, and ultracompact optoelectronic systems that are integrated with standard microelectronic technology. We demonstrate that Si nanowires (SiNWs) possessing metal-nanocluster coatings support a multiplicatively enhanced near-field light-matter interaction. Raman scattering from chemisorbed probing molecules provides a quantitative measure of the strength of this enhanced coupling. An enhancement factor of 2 orders of magnitude larger than that for the surface plasmon resonance alone (without the SiNWs) along with the attractive properties of SiNWs, including synthetic controllability of shape, indicates that these nanostructures may be an attractive and versatile material platform for the design of nanoscaled optical and optoelectronic circuits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Linyou
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Bora
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Garipcan
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Gallo
authors.forename: Stephen S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Nonnenmann
authors.forename: Bahram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nabet
authors.forename: Jonathan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Spanier
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D008027:Light; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D055096:Optical Devices; D010316:Particle Size; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; C009495:titanium dioxide; D014025:Titanium; D012825:Silicon