Nanoimprint lithography of plasmonic platforms for SERS applications

In this review, we describe the use of nanoimprint lithography in our group to fabricate plasmonic platforms with nanometer-scale critical features that would be significantly more expensive using other fabrication techniques: 3-D cones that have tips with a sub-10 nm radius of curvature, active polygonal nanofingers with sub-2 nm spacing, and deterministic nanoparticle assemblies both on arbitrary substrates and in solution. These nanostructures were primarily designed to make surface-enhanced Raman Scattering a viable analytical technique for low-level chemical and biological contaminants, but the same fabrication methods should also be useful for other nanophotonic and nanoelectronic applications.