The performance of surface enhanced Raman scattering and spatial resolution with triangular plate dimer from ultra-ultraviolet to near-infrared range

The theoretical research on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) of triangular plate dimer (TPD) is of great significance for the design of experimental substrates. In this paper, the SERS properties of the TPD with Au, Ag, Al and Cu have been theoretical investigated in the ultra-ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared region. The influence of the TPD configuration, including the tip radian, the dimer distance and the aspect ratio on the electric field, Raman enhancement and spatial resolution are studied by the finite element method. The results show that there are dipole resonance band and quadruple dipole resonance band in the surface plasmon resonance band of TPD. The tip radian and dimer distance play the dominant role in the electric field enhancement, and the aspect ratio can be mainly used to tune the peak position of the electric field. The smaller tip radian and dimer distance will produce a stronger localized electric field and a small red shift of the peak position. Adjusting the aspect ratio can tune the position of electric field peak from ultraviolet (UV) to near-infrared without changing the peak value of the electric field significantly, especially for Al TPD. The maximum Raman enhancement factor of Au, Ag and Cu all reach 11 orders of magnitude, and 9 orders of magnitude for Al. The spatial resolution changes linearly with the gap distance, and the maximum spatial distributions of Au, Ag, Al and Cu achieve 0.65 nm, 0.67 nm, 0.69 nm and 0.70 nm with the dimer distance of 1 nm. Our results not only provide a better theoretical guidance for the optimization of TPD substrates in the SERS experiment, but also extend its application scope from ultra-UV to near-infrared range.

Automated summary

In this study, the SERS properties of triangular plate dimer (TPD) with different materials in different spectral regions were theoretically investigated. It was found that the tip radian and dimer distance play a dominant role in the electric field enhancement, while the aspect ratio mainly tunes the peak position of the electric field. Adjusting the parameters can change the peak position of the electric field without significantly altering the peak value, and it can achieve electric field tuning from ultraviolet to near-infrared range. The research results provide important theoretical guidance for the optimization of TPD substrates in SERS experiments.