| Abstract: | Large area (3 × 3 cm2) substrates for surface‐enhanced Raman scattering were fabricated by combining femtosecond laser microstructuring and soft lithography techniques. The fabrication procedure is as follows: (i) femtosecond laser machining is used to create a silicon master copy, (ii) replicates from polydimethylsiloxane are made, and (iii) a 50‐nm‐thick gold film is deposited on the surface of the replicates. The resulting substrates exhibit strongly enhanced absorption in the spectral region of 350 ∼ 1000 nm and generate enhanced Raman signal with enhancement factor of the order of 107 for 10‐ 6 M rhodamine 6G. The main advantages of our substrates are low cost, large active area, and possibility for mass replication. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
