Reactive ion etching-assisted surface-enhanced Raman scattering measurements on the single nanoparticle level

Single-nanoparticle surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurement is of essential importance for both fundamental research and practical applications. In this work, we develop a class of single-particle SERS approaches, i.e., reactive ion etching (RIE)-assisted SERS measurements correlated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) strategy (RIE/SERS/SEM), enabling precise and high-resolution identification of single gold nanoparticle (AuNP) in facile and reliable manners. By using AuNP-coated silicon wafer and quartz glass slide as models, we further employ the developed RIE/SERS/SEM method for interrogating the relationship between SERS substrates and enhancement factor (EF) on the single particle level. Together with theoretical calculation using an established finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) method, we demonstrate silicon wafer as superior SERS substrates, facilitating improvement of EF values. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.