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Surface-enhanced Raman scattering from rhodamine 6G on gold-coated self-organized silicon nanopyramidal array

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Abstract

This work reports the gold-coated self-organized silicon nanopyramidal array prepared by a wet etching and magnetron sputtering process at room temperature. Scanning electron microscopy was used to detect the morphology of gold films. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of the rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules adsorbed on a nanoscale gold film were recorded. Experimental results show the relationships between gold film thickness and SERS intensity. A full three-dimensional finite difference time domain calculations were carried out, which compare the experimental results and show agreement with ratios of the SERS enhancement for the different thicknesses of gold films. Furthermore, numerical simulations of the array were conducted for both a real gold metal coating and a perfect electrical conductor to determine whether the SERS enhancement was due to diffraction or plasmonic effects. The sample with the fast fabrication process used in this work could provide a new way to obtain a uniform enhancement and low cost SERS substrate.

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Acknowledgments

Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10974025, 11074029, and 61137005) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China DUT13ZD107 and DUT13LK21. RL acknowledges CSC scholarship funding for financial support. The authors also acknowledge help and support from P.F. Ji, Y. Wan, Matt, and Emily on this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Near-Field Optics & Nano Technology, School of Physics and Optoelectronic Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, People’s Republic of China

    Rui Li, Hong Li, Shi Pan, Kun Liu, Shanshan Hu, Lujun Pan, Yingnan Guo & Shifa Wu

  2. School of Applied Science, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Shanxi, 030024, China

    Xufeng Li

  3. Microelectronics and Solid State Electronics, School of Physics and Optoelectronic Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, People’s Republic of China

    Jun Liu

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  1. Rui Li
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  2. Hong Li
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  3. Shi Pan
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Correspondence to Shi Pan.

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Li, R., Li, H., Pan, S. et al. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering from rhodamine 6G on gold-coated self-organized silicon nanopyramidal array. Journal of Materials Research 28, 3401–3407 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2013.352

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