Interparticle coupling effects in nanofabricated substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates, consisting of arrays of electromagnetically coupled Ag nanoparticles on Si, were manufactured by electron-beam lithography. Substrate Raman efficiency, evaluated from the relative SERS intensities of the adsorbates rhodamine 6G and thiophenol, was found to increase rapidly with decreasing interparticle separation, signaling the importance of strong interparticle coupling effects in SERS. The observed SERS efficiency variation can be qualitatively explained in terms of electrostatic models of coupled metal structures. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.