title: Tailoring plasmonic nanostructures for optimal SERS sensing of small molecules and large microorganisms.
abstract: Local electric fields can be tuned dramatically by varying the diameter of quasi-3D gold plasmonic nanostructure arrays, as indicated by 3D finite-difference time-domain calculations. Utilizing quasi-3D arrays that exhibit a maximum electric field intensity (i.e., a "hot" spot) either at the bottom (gold nanodisks) or on the top (gold film patterned with nanoholes), the optimal surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensitivity for the detection of small molecules or large microorganisms can be achieved. The precisely fabricated and optimized SERS-active quasi-3D nanostructure arrays make it possible to quantitatively and reproducibly detect chemical and biological species using SERS, leading to a new sensing platform with molecular specificity based on SERS for many important applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Jiajie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Heng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Jirí
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Homola
authors.forename: Qiuming
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*