Tunable and highly reproducible surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates made from large-scale nanoparticle arrays based on periodically poled LiNbO₃ templates

Abstract

This work describes novel surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates based on ferroelectric periodically poled LiNbO₃ templates. The templates comprise silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), the size and position of which are tailored by ferroelectric lithography. The substrate has uniform and large sampling areas that show SERS effective with excellent signal reproducibility, for which the fabrication protocol is advantageous in its simplicity. We demonstrate ferroelectric-based SERS substrates with particle sizes ranging from 30 to 70 nm and present tunable SERS effect from Raman active 4-mercaptopyridine molecules attached to AgNPs when excited by a laser source at 514 nm.

• surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)
• LiNbO₃
• ferroelectric-based SERS substrate
• tunability
• reproducibility

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the World Premier Institute Initiative for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) in National Institute for Materials Science, Japan. XL acknowledges Dr S Takekawa for help preparing the PPLN samples and Dr H Xin for help with UV–Vis absorption spectra measurements. Part of this work was conducted at the University of Washington NanoTech User Facility, a member of the NSF National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN).