Surface metalized polymer nanogratings as high-sensitive SERS substrates

摘要

Within this contribution we introduce micro-fabricated and surface-metalized polymer gratings as highly homogenous and highly sensitive substrates for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The field enhancement is caused by periodical grating structures which couple the light into the metallic surface, the generation of propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) and their enhancement at the edges of the dot-like pattern. Used in Raman setups our plasmonic substrates strongly enhance the sensitivity and show homogenous SERS signal distribution. Employing thin silver films, enhancement factors in the range of 10~5 were achieved. On the way towards the final goal of establishing SERS as a routinely applied analytical tool in bio sensing and material science the proposed fabrication method and the obtained SERS substrates fulfil the need for low-cost and easy-to-handle SERS approaches.