Wavelength dispersion of the local field intensity in silver-gold nanocages

A Review on Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has become a powerful tool in chemical, material and life sciences, owing to its intrinsic features (i.e., fingerprint recognition capabilities and high sensitivity) and to the technological advancements that have lowered the cost of the instruments and improved their sensitivity and user-friendliness. We provide an overview of the most significant aspects of SERS. First, the phenomena at the basis of the SERS amplification are described. Then, the measurement of the enhancement and the key factors that determine it (the materials, the hot spots, and the analyte-surface distance) are discussed. A section is dedicated to the analysis of the relevant factors for the choice of the excitation wavelength in a SERS experiment. Several types of substrates and fabrication methods are illustrated, along with some examples of the coupling of SERS with separation and capturing techniques. Finally, a representative selection of applications in the biomedical field, with direct and indirect protocols, is provided. We intentionally avoided using a highly technical language and, whenever possible, intuitive explanations of the involved phenomena are provided, in order to make this review suitable to scientists with different degrees of specialization in this field.

Surface Plasmon Resonances in Silver Nanostars

The recent development of silver nanostars (Ag-NSs) is promising for improved surface-enhanced sensing and spectroscopy, which may be further exploited if the mechanisms behind the excitation of localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) are identified. Here, we show that LSPRs in Ag-NSs can be obtained with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations by considering the nanostars as combination of crossed nanorods (Ag-NRs). In particular, we demonstrate that an apparent tail at large wavelengths (λ≳700 nm) observed in the extinction spectra of Ag-NSs is due to a strong dipolar plasmon resonance, with no need to invoke heterogeneity (different number of arms) effects as is normally done in the literature. Our description also indicates a way to tune the strongest LSPR at desired wavelengths, which is useful for sensing applications.

Surface plasmon resonance in gold nanoparticles: a review

In the last two decades, plasmon resonance in gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) has been the subject of intense research efforts. Plasmon physics is intriguing and its precise modelling proved to be challenging. In fact, plasmons are highly responsive to a multitude of factors, either intrinsic to the Au NPs or from the environment, and recently the need emerged for the correction of standard electromagnetic approaches with quantum effects. Applications related to plasmon absorption and scattering in Au NPs are impressively numerous, ranging from sensing to photothermal effects to cell imaging. Also, plasmon-enhanced phenomena are highly interesting for multiple purposes, including, for instance, Raman spectroscopy of nearby analytes, catalysis, or sunlight energy conversion. In addition, plasmon excitation is involved in a series of advanced physical processes such as non-linear optics, optical trapping, magneto-plasmonics, and optical activity. Here, we provide the general overview of the field and the background for appropriate modelling of the physical phenomena. Then, we report on the current state of the art and most recent applications of plasmon resonance in Au NPs.

In Silico Stark Effect: Determination of Excited-State Polarizabilities of Squaraine Dyes

The static electric polarizabilities (α) of a quadrupolar squaraine dye are investigated in silico, either as the excess polarizability, i.e., the change from the ground to the lowest excited state, Δα, or as those of the two states separately, depending on the approach. The polarizabilities are worked out by making use of the energy and dipole moment Taylor expansions as a function of the electric field (E), in which α is represented by the quadratic and linear terms, respectively, and also by means of the linear response approach. Dipoles and energies are computed at a few values of the electric field, with different strategies that consider the geometry of the molecule either frozen in the ground state or relaxed at each E value. From a physical standpoint, the most appropriate approach to describing the molecular polarizability depends on the processes in which the molecule is involved: for example, fluorescence methods provide information about relaxed excited states, and absorption methods are used to determine the polarizability changes of excited states frozen in the ground-state conformation. We show that the excited-state polarizability does not strongly differ from the ground-state polarizability when the field is applied along the main axis of the squaraine. In contrast, remarkable differences are found when the field is applied perpendicular to the molecular plane due to a large geometrical distortion of the molecular backbone.

Oxidation effects on the SERS response of silver nanoprism arrays

Oxidation effects on SERS response of Ag nanoprism arrays are interpreted by FEM simulations of the local-field distribution around the nanoprisms.