Planar Substrate

Detection of trace quantity of chemicals is of paramount importance in homeland security, battlefield, and environmental monitoring and protection. However, most of the sensors are unable to identify the signature of those chemicals. Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detector which has metallic nanostructures offers powerful means for express identification and trace quantities detection. We demonstrated using Au nanostructures for amplification of small Raman scattering cross section of molecules toward distinguishable signal. In this work, gold nanoparticles were synthesized using the UV-assisted photo-chemical reduction method and subsequently formed a monolayer on a glass slide through polymer-mediated self-assembly. With the optimized SERS planar substrate, an enhancement factor over 5.6x10⁶ was achieved. This work will lay a foundation for development of ultra-fast and ultra-sensitive SERS devices for chemicals identification and monitoring.