SERS: Highly‐Ordered, 3D Petal‐Like Array for Surface‐Enhanced Raman Scattering (Small 13/2011)

Despite the great potential of the application of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), the difficulty in fabricating suitable SERS substrates is still a challenge. Based on the self-assembly of silica nanoparticles, the image shows a highly ordered, 3D petallike arrayed structure that serves as a promising SERS substrate because of both its high reproducibility and enormous SERS enhancement. Such a novel structure is easily achieved by anisotropically etching a self-assembled bilayer of silica nanoparticles followed by metal deposition. The spatially average SERS enhancement factor is on the order of 5×107, and the local enhancement factor is much higher; both factors can be improved further by optimizing parameters. For more information, please read the Full Paper “Highly-Ordered, 3D Petal-Like Array for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering” by W. Wu and co-workers, beginning on page 1800.