Combination of periodic hybrid nanopillar arrays and gold nanorods for improving detection performance of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Kim, N.-H., Kim, S., Choi, M., Park, H.-H., Kim, N.H., Park, S.Y., Byun, K.M., Lee, S.Y.
Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 258, 18(2018)
DOI:10.1016/j.snb.2017.11.065

Abstract

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based on metallic nanoparticles has suffered from poor reproducibility and line broadening of SERS signals. To overcome these problems, we newly propose the SERS substrate incorporating periodic hybrid nanopillar arrays combined with gold nanorods on a flat gold surface. Low reproducibility caused by inhomogeneously distributed and aggregated gold nanoparticles could be improved by employing periodic nanopillar arrays. In addition, we experimentally found that the hybrid nanopillar, in which a dielectric layer is sandwiched between a flat gold film and a gold nanopillar, can reduce line broadening of SERS signals significantly. In this study, the proposed SERS substrate has the potential to provide SERS signals with higher reproducibility and smaller line broadening for high-sensitivity detection of target molecules. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.