title: Laser ablation surface-enhanced Raman microspectroscopy.
abstract: Improved identification of trace organic compounds in complex matrixes is critical for a variety of fields such as material science, heritage science, and forensics. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a vibrational spectroscopy technique that can attain single-molecule sensitivity and has been shown to complement mass spectrometry, but lacks widespread application without a robust method that utilizes the effect. We demonstrate a new, highly sensitive, and widely applicable approach to SERS analysis based on laser ablation in the presence of a tailored plasmonic substrate. We analyze several challenging compounds, including non-water-soluble pigments and dyed leather from an ancient Egyptian chariot, achieving sensitivity as high as 120 amol for a 1:1 signal-to-noise ratio and 5 μm spatial resolution. This represents orders of magnitude improvement in spatial resolution and sensitivity compared to those of other SERS approaches intended for widespread application, greatly increasing the applicability of SERS.
authors: Department of Scientific Research, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028, USA. pablo.londero@metmuseum.org
authors: Pablo S
authors: PS
authors: Londero
authors: John R
authors: JR
authors: Lombardi
authors: Marco
authors: M
authors: Leona