SERS activity of carbon nanotubes modified by silver nanoparticles with different particle sizes

A two-dimensional (2D) surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate is fabricated by decorating carbon nanotube (CNT) films with Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) in different sizes, via simple and low-cost chemical reduction method and self-assembling method. The change of Raman and SERS activity of carbon nanotubes/Ag nanoparticles (CNTs/AgNPs) composites with varying size of AgNPs are investigated by using rhodamine 6G (R6G) as a probe molecule. Meanwhile, the scattering cross section of AgNPs and the distribution of electric field of CNTs/AgNPs composite are simulated through finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) wavelength is redshifted as the size of AgNPs increases, and the intensity of SERS and electric field increase with AgNPs size increasing. The experiment and simulation results show a Raman scattering enhancement factor (EF) of 10⁸ for the hybrid substrate.     

基于Klarite芯片的表面增强拉曼散射特性研究

本文介绍了一种商用的表面增强拉曼芯片(Klarite),并对其表面形貌、拉曼活性进行了表征和测试分析.Klarite芯片由于独特的倒金字塔形设计使得其具有较好的拉曼活性、稳定性和重现性,为生命科学和分析化学研究提供了有力的研究工具.此外,我们对Klarite芯片在外电磁场作用下的表面电场分布进行了模拟,发现一个结构单元...     

Resonant waveguide field enhancement in dimers

It is shown that a waveguide mode, which exists between metal dimer particles and does not cut off, produces an enhanced electric field and hence a mechanism for surface-enhanced Raman scattering. Structures can thus be designed that provide large average field enhancement over significant length scales.     

Computer simulation of surface-enhanced Raman scattering in nanostructured metamaterials

The simulation of local field fluctuations and surface-enhanced Raman scattering in percolation systems at the percolation threshold is described. An approximate real-space renormalization group method was used in the simulation. It allows one to radically reduce the computation time compared to an exact calculation and to obtain detailed information about the electromagnetic field. The local fields in real macroscopic systems can be calculated by using this approximation. A computer simulation of the local fields in metal island (percolation) films has been performed by the developed method. The calculation has confirmed the existence of giant local field fluctuations. In turn, the local electric field excites Raman scattering. The local fields of surface-enhanced Raman scattering have been calculated for the first time. The dependence of the Raman scattering enhancement factor on the reference frequency and Stokes shift has been derived. An experimental observation of this dependence could be considered as a confirmation of the electromagnetic nature of the enhancement.     

Femtosecond and nanosecond laser fabricated substrate for surface-enhanced Raman scattering

We report a simple and repeatable method for fabricating a large-area substrate for surface-enhanced Raman scattering. The substrate was processed by three steps: (i) femtosecond (fs) laser micromachining and roughening, (ii) thin-film coating, and (iii) nanosecond laser heating and melting. Numerous gold nanoparticles of various sizes were created on the surface of the silicon substrate. The 3D micro-/nanostructures generated by the fs laser provide greater surface areas with more nanoparticles leading to 2 orders of magnitude higher of the enhancement factor than in the case of a flat substrate. Using an He-Ne laser with a 632.8?nm excitation wavelength, the surface-enhanced Raman scattering enhancement factor for Rhodamine 6G was measured up to 2×10(7).     

Long-range manifestation of surface-enhanced Raman scattering

The spatial scale at which the effect of surface-enhanced Raman scattering by planar Ag nanostructures manifests itself is investigated experimentally by direct measurements of the dependence of the enhancement factor on the distance between the surface of the Ag nanostructure and a layer of test organic molecules. It is found that the enhancement factor remains almost constant up to distances as large as 30 nm and drops abruptly at larger distances. The obtained dependence is universal for all kinds of organic molecules investigated. The fact that the surface enhancement of Raman scattering manifests itself on such a long spatial scale sharply contradicts the broadly accepted model assuming that the surface-enhanced Raman scattering decreases rapidly at distances as short as 2–3 nm.     

Concentric toroids as a wideband and efficient substrate for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy applications

Designing a structure having high local field enhancement, wideband resonance, and large hot spot area is the key element to obtain a large enhancement factor for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy applications. Here, the concentric toroid structures in dimer configuration is proposed, which shows a large local field intensity in a wide spectral range and the region that leads to a high-surface-enhanced Raman scattering signal intensity. Calculations show that the average surface-enhanced Raman scattering enhancement is up to 60 times more compared to the conventional dimer toroid structures with similar size.     

Growth of monodisperse nanospheres of MnFe_2O_4 with enhanced magnetic and optical properties

Highly dispersive nanospheres of MnFe204 are prepared by template free hydrothermal method. The nanospheres have 47.3-nm average diameter, narrow size distribution, and good crystallinity with average crystallite size about 22 nm. The reaction temperature strongly affects the morphology, and high temperature is found to be responsible for growth of uniform nanospheres. Raman spectroscopy reveals high purity of prepared nanospheres. High saturation magnetization （78.3 emu/g）, low coercivity （45 Oe, 10e = 79.5775 A.cm-1）, low remanence （5.32 emu/g）, and high anisotropy constant 2.84 × 10^4 J/m3 （10 times larger than bulk） are observed at room temperatures. The nearly snperparamagnetic behavior is ~ spin due to comparable size of nanospheres with superparamagnetic critical thameter Dcr spm The high value of Keff may be due to coupling between the pinned moment in the amorphous shell and the magnetic moment in the core of the nanospheres. The nanospheres show prominent optical absorption in the visible region, and the indirect band gap is estimated to be 0.98 eV from the transmission spectrum. The prepared Mn ferrite has potential applications in biomedicine and photocatalysis.     

Improved Ligand-Field Theoretical Calculations of R-Line Thermal Broadenings of NIgO：Cr^3＋ and MgO：V^2＋

With the values of parameters obtained from improved ligand-field theory, by taking into account all the irreducible representations and their components in EPI as well as all the levels and the admixtures of basic wavefunctions within d^3 electronic configuration, the R-line thermal broadenings （TB） of both MgO：Cr^3＋ and MgO：V^2＋ have microscopic-theoretically been calculated, The results are in very good agreement with the experimental data. It is found that the R-line TB of MgO：Cr^3＋ or MgO：V^2＋ comes from the first-order term of EPI. The elastic Raman scattering of acoustic phonons plays a dominant role in R-line TB of MgO：Cr^3＋ or MgO：V^2＋.     

Epitaxial growth of Ge1-xSnx films with x up to 0.14 grown on Ge （001） at low temperature

We characterize the structures of Ge1-xSnx films with x up to 0.14 grown on Ge （001） by molecular-beam epitaxy at low temperature. The results show that Ge1-xSnx films are fully strained even at high Sn composition. The in-plane lattice parameters remain exactly the same as that of the substrate. Depth sensitivity analysis of the lattice parameters indicates that the strains of the epitaxial films are all in homogeneity. The films are fully strained. Poisson ratios, the force constants for the bonds between Ge and Sn are estimated and discussed in the present paper. Raman results show Ge-Ge, Ge-Sn, Sn-Sn vibrational modes. The Sn-Sn bond aggregation may respond to the high quality of our films. The fully strained epitaxy films with high content of Sn may be useful in designing the high quality GeSn films.     

Structural and optical properties of a NaCl single crystal doped with CuO nanocrystals

A cupric oxide (CuO) nanocrystal-doped NaCl single crystal and a pure NaCl single crystal are grown by using the Czochralski (Cz) method. A number of techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, optical absorption in the UV-visible range, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy are used to characterize the obtained NaCl and NaCl:CuO crystals. It is observed that the average radius of CuO crystallites in NaCl:CuO crystal is about 29.87 nm, as derived from the XRD data analysis. Moreover, FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy results confirm the existence of the monoclinic CuO phase in NaCl crystal. UV-visible absorption measurements indicate that the band gap of the NaCl:CuO crystal is 434 nm (2.85 eV), and it shows a significant amount of blue-shift (△Eg = 1 eV ) in the band gap energy of CuO, which is due to the quantum confinement effect exerted by the CuO nanocrystals. The PL spectrum of the NaCl:CuO shows a broad emission band centred at around 438 nm, which is consistent with the absorption measurement.     

Direct growth of graphene on gallium nitride by using chemical vapor deposition without extra catalyst

Graphene on gallium nitride(GaN) will be quite useful when the graphene is used as transparent electrodes to improve the performance of gallium nitride devices. In this work, we report the direct synthesis of graphene on GaN without an extra catalyst by chemical vapor deposition. Raman spectra indicate that the graphene films are uniform and about 5–6 layers in thickness. Meanwhile, the effects of growth temperatures on the growth of graphene films are systematically studied, of which 950℃ is found to be the optimum growth temperature. The sheet resistance of the grown graphene is 41.1Ω/square,which is close to the lowest sheet resistance of transferred graphene reported. The mechanism of graphene growth on GaN is proposed and discussed in detail. XRD spectra and photoluminescence spectra indicate that the quality of GaN epi-layers will not be affected after the growth of graphene.     

TiO_2/Ag composite nanowires for a recyclable surface enhanced Raman scattering substrate

Multifunctional TiO2/Ag composite nanowires are fabricated with a hydrothermal method by precipitating Ag nanoparticles （NPs） on the surfaces of TiO2 nanowires. This hierarchical one-dimensional （1D） nanostructure can be used as a surface enhanced Raman scattering （SERS） substrate with high sensitivity, for detecting the rhodamine 6G （R6G） in a wide range of low concentrations （from 1 × 10 6 M to 1 × 10-12 M）. In addition, the substrate can be self-cleaned under the irradiation of ultraviolet （UV） light due to the superior photocatalytic capacity of the TiO2/Ag composite nanostructure, making the recycled use of SERS substrates closer to reality. With both the evident SERS performance and high efficiency of photocatalytic capacity, such TiOz/Ag composite nanowires demonstrate considerable potential in the chemical sensing of organic pollutants.     

Effects of shape and dopant on structural,optical absorption,Raman, and vibrational properties of silver and copper quantum clusters: A density functional theory study

We investigate the effects of shape and single-atom doping on the structural, optical absorption, Raman, and vibra- tional properties of Ag13, Ag12CUl, CUl3, and Cul2Agl clusters by using the （time-dependent） density functional the- ory. The results show that the most stable structures are cuboctahedron （COh） for Ag13 and icosahedron （Ih） for CUl3, Agl2CUlcore, and Cul2Aglsur. In the visible-near infrared optical absorption, the transitions consist of the interband and the intraband transitions. Moreover, red shifts are observed as follows： 1） clusters change from Agl2CUlcore to Ag13 to Ag12Culsur with the same motifs, 2） the shapes of pure Agl3 and Agl2CUlcore clusters change from COh to Ih to decahe- dron （Dh）, 3） the shape of Agl2CUlsur clusters changes from Ih to COh to Dh, and 4） the shapes of pure CU13 and Cu12Agl clusters change from Ih to Dh to COb. All of the Raman and vibrational spectra exhibit many significant vibrational modes related to the shapes and the compositions of the clusters. The ranges of vibrational spectra of Ag13, Agl2CUl or CU13, and Cu12Agl clusters become narrower and the vibrational intensities increase as the shape of the clusters changes from Ih to Dh to COh.     

Influence of reaction parameters on synthesis of high-quality single-layer graphene on Cu using chemical vapor deposition

Large-area monolayer graphene samples grown on polycrystalline copper foil by thermal chemical vapor deposition with differing CH4 flux and growth time are investigated by Raman spectra, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning tunneling microscopy. The defects, number of layers, and quality of graphene are shown to be controllable through tuning the reaction conditions: ideally to 2–3 sccm CH4 for 30 minutes.     

Improved crystal quality of GaN film with the in-plane lattice-matched Ino.17Alo.s3N interlayer grown on sapphire substrate using pulsed metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

We report on an improvement in the crystal quality of GaN film with an Ino.17Alo.83N interlayer grown by pulsed metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, which is in-plane lattice-matched to GaN films. The indium composition of about 17% and the reductions of both screw and edge threading dislocations （TDs） in GaN film with the InA1N interlayer are estimated by high resolution X-ray diffraction. Transmission electron microscopy （TEM） measurements are employed to understand the mechanism of reduction in TD density. Raman and photoluminescence measurements indicate that the InA1N interlayer can improve the crystal quality of GaN film, and verify that there is no additional residual stress induced into the GaN film with InA1N interlayer. Atomic force microscopy measurement shows that the InA1N interlayer brings in a smooth surface morphology of GaN film. All the results show that the insertion of the InA1N interlayer is a convenient method to achieve excellent crystal quality in GaN epitaxy.     

Study on lattice vibrational properties and Raman spectra of Bi_2Te_3 based on density-functional perturbation theory

We present a variational density-functional perturbation theory(DFPT) to investigate the lattice dynamics and vibrational properties of single crystal bismuth telluride material. The phonon dispersion curves and phonon density of states(DOS) of the material were obtained. The phonon dispersions are divided into two fields by a phonon gap. In the lower field,atomic vibrations of both Bi and Te contribute to the DOS. In the higher field, most contributions come from Te atoms. The calculated Born effective charges and dielectric constants reveal a great anisotropy in the crystal. The largest Born effective charge generates a significant dynamic charge transferring along the c axis. By DFPT calculation, the greatest LO–TO splitting takes place in the infrared phonon modes and reaches 1.7 THz in the Brillouin zone center. The Raman spectra and peaks corresponding to respective atomic vibration modes were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Characterization of deep acceptor level in as-grown ZnO thin film by molecular beam epitaxy

We report deep level transient spectroscopy results from ZnO layers grown on silicon by molecular beam epitaxy(MBE). The hot probe measurements reveal mixed conductivity in the as-grown ZnO layers, and the current–voltage(I–V)measurements demonstrate a good quality p-type Schottky device. A new deep acceptor level is observed in the ZnO layer having activation energy of 0.49±0.03 eV and capture cross-section of 8.57×10-18cm2. Based on the results from Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and secondary ion mass spectroscopy(SIMS) of the ZnO layer, the observed acceptor trap level is tentatively attributed to a nitrogen–zinc vacancy complex in ZnO.     

利用聚碳酸酯模板制备的金纳米棒的表面增强Raman散射效应研究

采用聚碳酸酯模板和电化学沉积法制备基于金纳米棒的Raman场增强衬底, 制备的金纳米棒直径大约36 nm, 长约1 μm, 测试结果显示其共振吸收峰的位置约为540 nm. 比较了谐振和非谐振条件下的场增强情况, 并确定了场增益系数, 结果显示谐振激光激发下的增益比非谐振情况下提高了7.36倍. 本研究相对于前人的工作取得了如下进展: 一是讨论了谐振模式与非谐振模式下的金纳米棒的场增益系数, 利用谐振波长的激光激发金纳米棒, 进一步提高了场增益; 二是消除了聚碳酸酯模板分子的荧光背底, 使其在表面增强 Raman 散射方面的应用进一步变得可行. 关键词： 金纳米棒 表面增强Raman散射 聚碳酸酯模板     

Analysis of detection limit to time-resolved coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering nanoscopy

In the implementation of CARS nanoscopy, signal strength decreases with focal volume size decreasing. A crucial problem that remains to be solved is whether the reduced signal generated in the suppressed focal volume can be detected. Here reported is a theoretical analysis of detection limit （DL） to time-resolved CARS （T-CARS） nanoscopy based on our proposed additional probe-beam-induced phonon depletion （APIPD） method for the low concentration samples. In order to acquire a detailed shot-noise limited signal-to-noise （SNR） and the involved parameters to evaluate DL, the T-CARS process is described with full quantum theory to estimate the extreme power density levels of the pump and Stokes beams determined by saturation behavior of coherent phonons, which are both actually on the order of ~ 109 W/cm2. When the pump and Stokes intensities reach such values and the total intensity of the excitation beams arrives at a maximum tolerable by most biological samples in a certain suppressed focal volume （40-nm suppressed focal scale in APIPD method）, the DL correspondingly varies with exposure time, for example, DL values are 103 and 102 when exposure times are 20 ms and 200 ms respectively.