Hierarchical surface rough ordered Au particle arrays and their surface enhanced Raman scattering

A simple, effective, and low-cost method is presented to fabricate an ordered Au particle array with hierarchical surface roughness on an indium tin oxide substrate based on an ordered alumina through-pore template, induced by solution dipping on colloidal monolayer, using an electrochemical deposition strategy. The array consists of periodically arranged and isolated Au microparticles, which show nanoscaled surface roughness. Importantly, this hierarchically rough particle array exhibits strong surface-enhanced Raman scattering effect using rhodamine 6G as probe molecules, associated with its surface geometry. Such structure could be useful, e. g., in sensors, biotechnology, and nanodevices. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.