Nanopatterning and tuning of optical taper antenna apex for tip-enhanced Raman scattering performance

Journal Article · Sun Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Review of Scientific Instruments

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4822274· OSTI ID:22224124

Kharintsev, S. S.; Rogov, A. M. ^[1]; Kazarian, S. G. ^[2]

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1. Department of Optics and Nanophotonics, Institute of Physics, Kazan Federal University, Kremlevskaya 16, Kazan 420008 (Russian Federation)
2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom)

This paper focuses on finding optimal electrochemical conditions from linear sweep voltammetry analysis for preparing highly reproducible tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) conical gold tips with dc-pulsed voltage etching. Special attention is given to the reproducibility of tip apex shapes with different etchant mixtures. We show that the fractional Brownian motion model enables a mathematical description of the decaying current kinetics during the whole etching process up to the cutoff event. Further progress in preparation of highly reproducible smooth and sharp tip apexes is related to the effect of an additive, such as isopropanol, to aqueous acids. A finite-difference time-domain method based near-field analysis provides evidence that TERS performance depends critically on tip orientation relative to a highly focused laser beam. A TERS based criterion for recognizing gold tips able to couple/decouple optical near- and far-fields is proposed.

• OSTI ID: 22224124
• Journal Information: Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 84, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6748
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ADDITIVES
ANTENNAS
BROWNIAN MOVEMENT
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTROCHEMISTRY
ETCHING
GOLD
LASERS
MIXTURES
NANOSTRUCTURES
ORIENTATION
PERFORMANCE
PROPANOLS
RAMAN EFFECT
RAMAN SPECTRA