title: Plasmon focusing in short gold sphere nanochains for surface-enhanced Raman scattering.
abstract: Power-flow focusing in metal nanostructures is attracting growing attention to design efficient and tunable substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and to propose a more reliable alternative to random surfaces for single-molecule sensing. In this paper, finite-difference time-domain simulations were used to explore the near-field amplification features of short chains of gold (Au) nanospheres. Short chains of gold spheres were found to induce stronger field enhancements than infinite chains due to a more efficient trapping and focusing of the incident energy. In addition, interaction with a suitably tuned SiO2/Au double-layer substrate was demonstrated to widen the resonance's bandwidth, meeting another practical need for SERS.
authors: Pascal
authors: P
authors: Delange
authors: Ya-Lun
authors: YL
authors: Ho
authors: Jean-Jacques
authors: JJ
authors: Delaunay