Characterization of Photonic Nanostructures used as Surface- Enhanced Raman Substrates for Bacterial Spores

摘要

Efforts to develop a single solution for detecting hazardous chemicals and biological organisms for both military and civilian communities often produce conflicting requirements. The detection of biological threats, specifically spores, presents us with the most challenging problem. Raman spectroscopy is an excellent method for unique chemical and biological identification. The applicability of Raman spectroscopy to bacterial identification and analysis has been previously demonstrated. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a well-known method for improving the signal level in Raman scattering. In order to form a uniform noble metal surface architecture, and therefore reproducible surface enhanced spectra, novel fabrication techniques have been developed. Here we report on our recent efforts using silver-shells around latex spheres as a SERS substrate for bacterial endospores.