title: Single-order, subwavelength resonant nanograting as a uniformly hot substrate for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.
abstract: The surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) activity and the optical reflectance of a subwavelength gold nanograting fabricated entirely using top down technologies on silicon wafers are presented. The grating consists of 120 nm gold cladding on top of parallel silica nanowires constituting the grating's lines, with gaps between nanowires <10 nm wide at their narrowest point. The grating produces inordinately intense SERS and shows very strong polarization dependence. Reflectance measurements for the optimized grating indicate that (when p-polarization is used and at least one of the incident electric field components lies across the grating lines) the reflectance drops to <1% at resonance, indicating that essentially all of the radiant energy falling on the surface is coupled into the grating. The SERS intensity and the reflectance at resonance anticorrelate predicatively, suggesting that reflectance measurements can provide a nondestructive, wafer-level test of SERS efficacy. The SERS performance of the gratings is very uniform and reproducible. Extensive measurements on samples cut from both the same wafer and from different wafers, produce a SERS intensity distribution function that is similar to that obtained for ordinary Raman measurements carried out at multiple locations on a polished (100) silicon wafer.
authors.affiliation: NanoOpto, API Technologies Corporation, Somerset, New Jersey 08873, USA. xuegong.deng@osamember.org
authors.forename: Xuegong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Gary B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Paul F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Sciortino
authors.forename: Bob
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Koefer
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tombler
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moskovits
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010316:Particle Size; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D006046:Gold