The fabrication of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates that are optimized for use with specific laser wavelength � analyte combinations is addressed. In order to achieve large signal enhancement, temporal stability, and reproducibility over large substrate areas at low cost, only self-assembly and templating processes are employed. The resulting substrates consist of arrays of gold nanospheres with controlled diameter and spacing, properties that dictate the optical response of the structure. We observe tunability of the extended surface plasmon resonance in the range of 520-1000 nm. We demonstrate that the enhancement factor is maximized when the surface plasmon resonance is red-shifted with respect to the SERS instrument laser line. Despite relying on self-organization, we obtain site-to-site enhancement factor variations smaller than 10%.  The application of similar self-assembled block copolymer structures will be demonstrated for other related applications.

Block copolymers as templates for SERS applications

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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