Páez-Correa, Daniel A.

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    Nanofabrication of metal/polymer structures for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy based biosensing
    (2009-12) Páez-Correa, Daniel A.; Díaz-Rivera, Rubén E.; College of Engineering; Quintero, Pedro; Banerjee, Jayanta; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Molina Bas, Omar
    Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool for detection because the Raman spectra yields information about the molecular structure of a given analyte and the technique is commonly used as a molecular fingerprint. However the Raman signal is very weak, making the process inefficient. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), has the advantage of increasing the Raman signal by several orders of magnitude, making the technique very attractive and is becoming increasingly popular in the fields of biotechnology and chemistry. Effective techniques for nanofabrication are essential in SERS, taking into account that the particles sizes conforming the SERS substrate, must be in the range of 5 – 100 nm to exhibit a maximum enhancement, with shape and interparticle spacing affecting its performance. In this project a series of hexagonal, elliptical, and square shaped arrays of nanopillars were produced using electron beam lithography. The nanopillars were patterned in poly(methylmetacrylate), a commonly used electron beam resist. These arrays were used to test their performance as SERS substrates as a result of the different shapes of the nanostructured surface, using the model molecule, 4-aminobenzoic acid (PABA). The results show that the elliptical-shaped nanopillars gave the maximum SERS signal for a given concentration of PABA, when a 15 nm thick layer of silve was deposited over the nanostructured surface, which was used as the enhanced metal surface.