Nanoscale roughness on metal surfaces can increase tip-enhanced Raman scattering by an order of magnitude.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 17447824.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
We studied the influence of nanosteps on signal intensity in gap-mode tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS). A benzenethiol monolayer adsorbed on an Au substrate was investigated. The correlation between the TERS signal and the local topography on the substrate shows that a 2 nm high sharp step on the Au surface can significantly increase the enhancement. Furthermore, theoretical models were built, and the numerical simulation results were consistent with our experimental results. The findings provide evidence that nanoscale roughness can play a crucial role in the "hot sites" corresponding to single-molecule surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).