Nanowerk July 31, 2023
Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is becoming a highly topical technique for identifying and fingerprinting molecules. Crucial for SERS is the need for substrates with strong and reproducible enhancements of the Raman signal over large areas and with a low fabrication cost. An international team of researchers (UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium) found that dense arrays of plasmonic nanohelices have excellent SERS properties. As an illustration, they presented two new ways to probe near-field enhancement generated with circular polarization at chiral metasurfaces, first using the Raman spectra of achiral molecules (crystal violet) and second using a single, element-specific, achiral molecular vibrational mode. The nanohelices could be fabricated over large areas at a low cost and they provided strong, robust, and uniform Raman enhancement. According to the researchers these advanced materials will find broad applications in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopies and material science… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Crystal violet scatters light into a rainbow… (artist’s impression by photography). Credit: Ventsislav Valev, Kylian Valev, Eva Valev, Robin Jones