Shuangmei Zhu

A giant localized field enhancement and high sensitivity in an asymmetric ring by exhibiting Fano resonance

The optical properties of asymmetric ring structures are investigated theoretically by using the discrete dipole approximation method. The numerical results revealed that this kind of structure can achieve a giant localized field enhancement (LFE, 264) and a high LSPR sensitivity (corresponding FOM, 8.28) in the visible spectrum by Fano resonance, whose origin is discussed based on plasmon hybridization theory. Furthermore, the dependence of the Fano resonance on the polarization states of the incident light is also demonstrated. Giant LFE and high LSPR sensitivity enable this structure to be promising for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and sensing applications.

Realization of high sensitive SERS substrates with one-pot fabrication of Ag–Fe3O4 nanocomposites

Ag-Fe3O4 nanocomposites were synthesized by the redox reaction between Ag2O and Fe(OH)2 in the absence of additional reductant at moderate temperature and atmospheric condition. The as-synthesized Ag-Fe3O4 nanocomposites are assembled into an orderly arrayed SERS substrate holding clean and reproducible properties with an applied external magnetic field. 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA) is chosen as the probe molecule to test the enhancement factors (EF), uniformity and reproducibility of the SERS substrate. Experimental results indicate that the EF of 4-MBA on our proposed SERS substrate is up to 5.2×10(6) and the detection limit is down to ∼10(-10) M. The SERS spectra of 4-MBA molecules ranging from 200 cm(-1) to 2000 cm(-1) were randomly collected from a number of positions on the substrate and six Ag-Fe3O4 nanocomposites substrates are measured with the same procedure. It is shown that the SERS substrate have the good uniformity and reproducibility with low standard deviation, indicating our proposed Ag-Fe3O4 nanocomposites with external magnetic field control abilities have potential applications in the fields of magnetic separation and SERS techniques.

Near-field engineering of Fano resonances in a plasmonic assembly for maximizing CARS enhancements

Surface enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (SECARS) is a sensitive tool and promising for single molecular detection and chemical selective imaging. However, the enhancement factors (EF) were only 10~100 for colloidal silver and gold nanoparticles usually used as SECARS substrates. In this paper, we present a design of SECARS substrate consisting of three asymmetric gold disks and strategies for maximizing the EF by engineering near-field properties of the plasmonic Fano nanoassembly. It is found that the E-field “hot spots” corresponding to three different frequencies involved in SECARS process can be brought to the same spatial locations by tuning incident orientations, giving rise to highly confined SECARS “hot spots” with the EF reaching single-molecule sensitivity. Besides, an even higher EF of SECARS is achieved by introducing double Fano resonances in this plasmonic nanoassembly via further enlarging the sizes of the constituent disks. These findings put an important step forward to the plasmonic substrate design for SECARS as well as for other nonlinear optical processes.

Surface enhanced Raman scattering of 4-aminothiophenol sandwiched between Ag nanocubes and smooth Pt substrate: The effect of the thickness of Pt film

Ag nanocubes (NCs)/4-aminothiophenol (p-ATP)/smooth platinum (Pt) film (Ag-NCs @ p-ATP/Pt) sandwich structure is created for surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The proposed sandwich structure is shown to exhibit better performance than the Ag-NCs only as SERS substrate. The dependence of the Raman signal intensity on the thickness of the Pt films is examined. It is shown that the Raman signal increases with the thickness of the Pt films from 42 to 90 nm, suggesting the electromagnetic coupling of the localized surface plasmons of the Ag-NCs with the surface plasmon polaritons of the underneath Pt film, which is confirmed by our numerical simulations. The SERS enhancement factor in Ag-NCs @ p-ATP/Pt is estimated to be (4.1 ± 0.2) × 106 for a Pt film of 90 nm.

Optical properties in one-dimensional graded soft photonic crystals with ferrofluids

We theoretically investigate the optical properties in one-dimensional graded soft photonic crystals (1D GSPCs). The proposed structure is constituted of the stacked ferrofluids layer and the dielectric layer. Due to the supermagnetic response of the ferromagnetic nanoparticles, they will align in a line under the influence of the initiated magnetic field, thereby modulating the refractive index of the ferrofluids layer. By resorting to the transfer matrix method, the dispersion relation, transmittance and reflectance in 1D GSPCs were calculated. Numerical results show that a broad photonic band gap appears in such systems, which can even be broadened by increasing the volume fraction of ferromagnetic nanoparticles. Moreover, perfect transmittance of our proposed structure can be realized with an increased number of ferrofluid layers. In comparison with conventional PCs materials, 1D GSPCs composed of liquid material offer a very flexible route to implementation, which can be widely used in the application of optical filters, waveguides, reflectors and so on.

A monolayer of hierarchical silver hemi-mesoparticles with tunable surface topographies for highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

We proposed a facile green synthesis system to synthesize large-scale Ag hemi-mesoparticles monolayer on Cu foil. Ag hemi-mesoparticles have different surface morphologies on their surfaces, including ridge-like, meatball-like, and fluffy-like shapes. In the reaction, silver nitrate was reduced by copper at room temperature in dimethyl sulfoxide via the galvanic displacement reaction. The different surface morphologies of the Ag hemi-mesoparticles were adjusted by changing the reaction time, and the hemi-mesoparticle surface formed fluffy-spherical nanoprotrusions at longer reaction time. At the same time, we explored the growth mechanism of silver hemi-mesoparticles with different surface morphologies. With 4-mercaptobenzoic acid as Raman probe molecules, the fluffy-like silver hemi-mesoparticles monolayer with the best activity of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), the enhancement factor is up to 7.33 × 10(7) and the detection limit can reach 10(-10)M. SERS measurements demonstrate that these Ag hemi-mesoparticles can serve as sensitive SERS substrates. At the same time, using finite element method, the distribution of the localized electromagnetic field near the particle surface was simulated to verify the enhanced mechanism. This study helps us to understand the relationship between morphology Ag hemi-mesoparicles and the properties of SERS.

Tunable and enhanced SERS activity of magneto-plasmonic Ag–Fe3O4 nanocomposites with one pot synthesize method

In this paper, we report the tunable and enhanced SERS activity of magneto-plasmonic Ag–Fe3O4 nanocomposites that are synthesized by a one pot method. Crystal violet (CV), rhodamine 6 G (R6G) and 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA) molecules are used to investigate the SERS optical activity of Ag–Fe3O4 nanocomposites under different external magnetic fields (1500, 2000, 2500, 3500 and 5000 gauss). The experimental results demonstrate the enhanced Raman effects that can be obtained by increasing the magnitude of external magnetic field. This is because the electromagnetic hot spots located between the neighboring Ag–Fe3O4 nanocomposites can be tuned by utilizing the external magnetic field. The bigger density of the hot-spots and amplitude of the electric field in the hot-spot are responsible for the enhanced SERS effect. The detection limit of CV molecule can be at least down to 10−9 M. The spectra measurements of hemoglobin adsorbed on the Ag−Fe3O4 nanocomposites under different external magnetic fields are also performed to explore its bio-applications. Finite element method (FEM) is used to simulate the local electromagnetic field distribution in Ag–Fe3O4 nanocomposites, revealing the SERS enhanced mechanism is determined mainly by the near field enhanced electromagnetic field. Due to its tunable and enhanced properties, Ag–Fe3O4 nanocomposites are expected to be promising SERS substrates for chemical and biological sensing applications.

Controllable optical activity of non-spherical Ag and Co SERS substrate with different magnetic field

We experimentally fabricate a non-spherical Ag and Co surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate, which not only retains the metallic plasmon resonant effect, but also possesses the magnetic field controllable characteristics. Raman detections are carried out with the test crystal violet (CV) and rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules with the initiation of different magnitudes of external magnetic field. Experimental results indicate that our prepared substrate shows a higher SERS activity and magnetic controllability, where non-spherical Ag nanoparticles are driven to aggregate effectively by the magnetized Co and plenty of hot-spots are built around the metallic Ag nanoparticles, thereby leading to the enhancement of local electromagnetic field. Moreover, when the external magnetic field is increased, our prepared substrate demonstrates excellent SERS enhancement. With the 2500 Gs and 3500 Gs (1 Gs = 10−4 T) magnetic fields, SERS signal can also be obtained with the detection limit lowering down to 10−9 M. These results indicate that our proposed magnetic field controlled substrate enables us to freely achieve the enhanced and controllable SERS effect, which can be widely used in the optical sensing, single molecule detection and bio-medical applications.

Theoretical investigation of a plasmonic substrate with multi-resonance for surface enhanced hyper-Raman scattering

Because of the unique selection rule, hyper-Raman scattering (HRS) can provide spectral information that linear Raman and infrared spectroscopy cannot obtain. However, the weak signal is the key bottleneck that restricts the application of HRS technique in study of the molecular structure, surface or interface behavior. Here, we theoretically design and investigate a kind of plasmonic substrate consisting of Ag nanorices for enhancing the HRS signal based on the electromagnetic enhancement mechanism. The Ag nanorice can excite multiple resonances at optical and near-infrared frequencies. By properly designing the structure parameters of Ag nanorice, multi- plasmon resonances with large electromagnetic field enhancements can be excited, when the “hot spots” locate on the same spatial positions and the resonance wavelengths match with the pump and the second-order Stokes beams, respectively. Assisted by the field enhancements resulting from the first- and second-longitudinal plasmon resonance of Ag nanorice, the enhancement factor of surface enhanced hyper-Raman scattering can reach as high as 5.08 × 109, meaning 9 orders of magnitude enhancement over the conventional HRS without the plasmonic substrate.