Plasmonic SERS Substrates and Probes

This book summarizes our recent efforts in development of plasmonic SERS substrates and probes. Here we discuss (1) SERS platforms based on Au and Au@Ag nanorod assemblies; (2) fabrication and properties of hybrid large-scale high-quality 2D silica photonic crystals decorated with gold nanospheres or gold nanorods; and (3) wet-chemical fabrication of centimeter-scale gold nanoisland films with tunable morphology of islands and strong electromagnetic coupling between them. In Chapter 4 we consider novel SERS probes with Raman-active molecules embedded inside Au@Ag nanocuboids with finely tunable geometrical and optical properties. A new type of SERS probes with Raman reporters in a nanometer-sized interior gap between Au core and shell (plasmonic nanomatryshkas) are considered in the final chapter 5. The book can be useful for students and researchers dealing with development of SERS substrates and probes for chemical/biological sensing and biomedical imaging. This research was supported by the Russian Scientific Foundation (project No. 14-13-01167).