title: Tapered Optical Fiber Probe Assembled with Plasmonic Nanostructures for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Application.
abstract: Optical fiber-Raman devices integrated with plasmonic nanostructures have promising potentials for in situ probing remote liquid samples and biological samples. In this system, the fiber probe is required to simultaneously demonstrate stable surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signals and high sensitivity toward the target species. Here we demonstrate a generic approach to integrate presynthesized plasmonic nanostructures with tapered fiber probes that are prepared by a dipping-etching method, through reversed electrostatic attraction between the silane couple agent modified silica fiber probe and the nanostructures. Using this approach, both negatively and positively charged plasmonic nanostructures with various morphologies (such as Au nanosphere, Ag nanocube, Au nanorod, Au@Ag core-shell nanorod) can be stably assembled on the tapered silica fiber probes. Attributed to the electrostatic force between the plasmonic units and the fiber surface, the nanostructures do not disperse in liquid samples easily, making the relative standard deviation of SERS signals as low as 2% in analyte solution. Importantly, the detection sensitivity of the system can be optimized by adjusting the cone angle (from 3.6° to 22°) and the morphology of nanostructures assembled on the fiber. Thus, the nanostructures-sensitized optical fiber-Raman probes show great potentials in the applications of SERS-based environmental detection of liquid samples.
authors.affiliation: †Key Laboratory of Materials Physics and Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhulin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: §Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Photonics Devices and Materials, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: §Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Photonics Devices and Materials, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: †Key Laboratory of Materials Physics and Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: †Key Laboratory of Materials Physics and Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiujuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: †Key Laboratory of Materials Physics and Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhaoming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: §Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Photonics Devices and Materials, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qinghe
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: †Key Laboratory of Materials Physics and Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China.|‡University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Guowen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Meng
keywords: detection; electrostatic attraction; plasmonic nanostructures; surface-enhanced Raman scattering; tapered fiber probe