Tunable SERS in gold nanorod dimers through strain control on an elastomeric substrate

Nano Lett. 2010 Nov 10;10(11):4488-93. doi: 10.1021/nl1023172.

Abstract

In this Letter we provide experimental verification of the interparticle distance dependence of the SERS enhancement factor in 1 μm gold gapped nanorods. Au dimers are fabricated from electrochemically grown heterogeneous Au-Ag-Au nanorods and deposited on a stretchable elastomer film which allows active and reversible tuning of the interparticle gap on the sub-5-nm level. Significantly, this technique allows the distance dependence to be tracked using a single dimer, thereby avoiding enhancement factor reproducibility issues arising from morphological differences in disparate nanoparticle pairs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Dimerization
  • Elastic Modulus
  • Elastomers / chemistry*
  • Gold / chemistry*
  • Macromolecular Substances / chemistry
  • Materials Testing
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Nanostructures / chemistry*
  • Nanostructures / ultrastructure*
  • Particle Size
  • Stress, Mechanical
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance / methods*
  • Surface Properties

Substances

  • Elastomers
  • Macromolecular Substances
  • Gold