Fast, Economical, and Reproducible Sensing from a 2D Si Wire Array: Accurate Characterization by Single Wire Spectroscopy

Silicon (Si) is promising as a field enhancement material because of its high abundance, low toxicity, and high refractive index. The field enhancement cell performance, and sensor sensitivity. To manufacture field enhancement materials on a production scale, the fabrication technique must be simple, costeffective, fast, and highly reproducible and must produce a high enhancement factor (EF). Herein, we report on an economical and efficient fabrication method for a field enhancement substrate consisting of a two-dimensional Si wire array (2D-SiWA). This substrate was demonstrated as a fluorescence sensor with high sensitivity (EF > 200) and composed of a large area (6.0 mm2). In addition, single wire spectroscopy was used to identify very high reproducibility of the sensor sensitivity in regular regions (97%) and a mixture of regular and irregular regions (87%) of the 2D-SiWA. The large-area Si fluorescence sensor fabrication was costeffective and rapid and was 50x less expensive, 20xfaster, and 60,000xlarger than the typical electron beam lithography method.

Automated summary

Silicon is considered a promising enhancement material due to its abundance, low toxicity, and high refractive index. A cost-effective and efficient fabrication method for a field enhancement substrate consisting of a two-dimensional Si wire array (2D-SiWA) was reported, demonstrating high sensor sensitivity and reproducibility. The large-area Si fluorescence sensor fabrication proved to be 50x less expensive, 20x faster, and 60,000x larger than the typical electron beam lithography method.