title: Ultrafast plasmon dynamics and evanescent field distribution of reproducible surface-enhanced Raman-scattering substrates.
abstract: Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a potent tool in bioanalytical science because the technique combines high sensitivity with molecular specificity. However, the widespread and routine use of SERS in quantitative biomedical diagnostics is limited by tight requirements on the reproducibility of the noble metal substrates used. To solve this problem, we recently introduced a novel approach to reproducible SERS substrates. In this contribution, we apply ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy to investigate the photo-induced collective charge-carrier dynamics in such substrates, which represents the fundamental origin of the SERS mechanism. The ultrafast experiments are accompanied by scanning-near field optical microscopy and SERS experiments to correlate the appearance of plasmon dynamics with the resultant evanescent field distribution and the analytically relevant SERS enhancement.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Jenaer Biochip Initiative), Helmholtzweg 4, 07743, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cialla
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Siebert
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hübner
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Möller
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schneidewind
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mattheis
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Petschulat
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tünnermann
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pertsch
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dietzek
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Popp