Plasmonic core–shell–satellites with abundant electromagnetic hotspots for highly sensitive and reproducible SERS detection

Puran Pandey, Sundar Kunwar, Ki Hoon Shin, Min Kyu Seo, Jongwon Yoon, Woong Ki Hong, Jung Inn Sohn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this work, we develop a Ag@Al2 O3 @Ag plasmonic core–shell–satellite (PCSS) to achieve highly sensitive and reproducible surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) detection of probe molecules. To fabricate PCSS nanostructures, we employ a simple hierarchical dewetting process of Ag films coupled with an atomic layer deposition (ALD) method for the Al2 O3 shell. Compared to bare Ag nanoparticles, several advantages of fabricating PCSS nanostructures are discovered, including high surface roughness, high density of nanogaps between Ag core and Ag satellites, and nanogaps between adjacent Ag satellites. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations of the PCSS nanostructure confirm an enhancement in the electromagnetic field intensity (hotspots) in the nanogap between the Ag core and the satellite generated by the Al2 O3 shell, due to the strong core–satellite plasmonic coupling. The as-prepared PCSS-based SERS substrate demonstrates an enhancement factor (EF) of 1.7 × 107 and relative standard deviation (RSD) of ~7%, endowing our SERS platform with highly sensitive and reproducible detection of R6G molecules. We think that this method provides a simple approach for the fabrication of PCSS by a solid-state technique and a basis for developing a highly SERS-active substrate for practical applications.

Original languageEnglish
Article number12191
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume22
Issue number22
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2021

Keywords

  • Ag nanoparticles
  • FDTD
  • Hotspots
  • Plasmonic core-shell-satellite
  • SERS

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