Yanyan Huo

SERS detection of R6G based on a novel graphene oxide/silver nanoparticles/silicon pyramid arrays structure

We present a novel surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate based on graphene oxide/silver nanoparticles/silicon pyramid arrays structure (GO/Ag/PSi). The SERS behaviors are discussed and compared by the detection of R6G. Based on the contrast experiments with PSi, GO/PSi, Ag/PSi and GO/AgA/PSi as SERS substrate, the perfect bio-compatibility, good homogeneity and chemical stability were confirmed. We also calculated the electric field distributions using Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) analysis to further understand the GO/Ag/PSi structure as a perfect SERS platform. These experimental and theoretical results imply that the GO/Ag/PSi with regular pyramids array is expected to be an effective substrate for label-free sensitive SERS detections in areas of medicine, food safety and biotechnology.

Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Based on Controllable-Layer Graphene Shells Directly Synthesized on Cu Nanoparticles for Molecular Detection

Graphene shells with a controllable number of layers were directly synthesized on Cu nanoparticles (CuNPs) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to fabricate a graphene-encapsulated CuNPs (G/CuNPs) hybrid system for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The enhanced Raman spectra of adenosine and rhodamine 6G (R6G) showed that the G/CuNPs hybrid system can strongly suppress background fluorescence and increase signal-to-noise ratio. In four different types of SERS systems, the G/CuNPs hybrid system exhibits more efficient SERS than a transferred graphene/CuNPs hybrid system and pure CuNPs and graphene substrates. The minimum detectable concentrations of adenosine and R6G by the G/CuNPs hybrid system can be as low as 10(-8) and 10(-10)  M, respectively. The excellent linear relationship between Raman intensity and analyte concentration can be used for molecular detection. The graphene shell can also effectively prevent surface oxidation of Cu nanoparticles after exposure to ambient air and thus endow the hybrid system with a long lifetime. This work provides a basis for the fabrication of novel SERS substrates.

Controlled-layer and large-area MoS 2 films encapsulated Au nanoparticle hybrids for SERS

In this work, a facile and effective method for controlled-layer and large-area MoS2 films encapsulated Au nanoparticle hybrids is developed. With accurate Ar plasma treatment time control, the large-area MoS2 layers can be obtained from monolayer to trilayer. The fabricated MoS2@Au NPs with higher surface area exhibit excellent Raman enhanced effect for aromatic organic molecules (rhodamine 6G and crystal violet) and achieve the best when the monolayer MoS2@AuNPs was obtained. The limit of detection is found to be as low as 1 × 10-10 M. The MoS2@AuNPs was characterized by SEM, EDS, AFM, Raman spectroscopy, UV-Vis, XRD and HRTEM.

3D silver nanoparticles with multilayer graphene oxide as a spacer for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy analysis

We report a three-dimensional (3D) SERS substrate with different numbers of silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) layers using multilayer graphene oxide (GO) as a spacer. The SERS performance of the 3D nanostructure was investigated and it was found that the SERS effect increased as the number of Ag NP layers increased, and showed almost no change for more than four layers. We found that the SERS performance of the 3D nanostructures can be mainly attributed to the topmost hot spots which are closely related to the Ag NP layers in the 3D nanostructure. Furthermore, we explored 3D nanostructures with different Ag NP layers using the finite difference time domain method (FDTD). The 3D SERS substrates also exhibit excellent detection capability. The limit of detection (LOD) was calculated down to 10-15 M for R6G and 10-12 M for CV. In addition, the reproducibility of the 3D SERS substrate was attributed obviously to the increasing number of Ag NP layers. Based on these promising results, the highly sensitive detection of molecules such as malachite green was demonstrated for food safety inspection.

Third-harmonic generation from gold nanowires of rough surface considering classical nonlocal effect

We demonstrate that the nonlocal dielectric response of metal, comparing with the traditional local model, will significantly boost the third-order harmonic generation (THG) from gold nanowires of rough surface by a factor of several orders of magnitude. The enhancement is probably due to the penetrated field into the fine nanostructures on the metal surface in nonlocal model. The anisotropy THG efficiency versus the angle of incidence is also demonstrated due to the inhomogeneous surface morphology. The possible ways to verify the nonlocal effect to the THG are demonstrated. The results have a general significance in explaining the experimental observations.

Theoretical design of a surface plasmon resonance sensor with high sensitivity and high resolution based on graphene–WS2 hybrid nanostructures and Au–Ag bimetallic film

We proposed a high sensitivity and a high resolution surface plasmon resonance sensor composed of graphene–WS2 hybrid nanostructure and Au–Ag bimetallic-layers film. The bimetallic-layer configuration uses the high sensitivity of gold and the narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM) of silver to improve the sensors sensitivity and resolution respectively. Graphene and WS2 serve as an effective light absorption medium. Once they cover the bimetallic-layer, the sensitivity can be further improved significantly. Graphene–WS2–Au–Ag model shows a higher sensitivity and higher resolution than that of the conventional sensing scheme where pure Au thin film is used. In our paper, we mainly use Fresnel equations and the transfer matrix method (TMM) to study the reflectivity and sensitivity as well as the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the SPR sensor.

A sensitive 2D plasmon ruler based on Fano resonance

In this paper, we designed a 2D distance and rotation angle plasmon ruler based on Fano resonance of a trimer nanostructure, which consists of a concentric square nanoring–disk and an outside nanorod (CSRDR). The Fano dip energy and depth are fairly sensitive to the nanometer-scale displacements and rotations, when the nanodisk moves in all direction and rotates around its center. When the symmetry of the nanoring is broken, we can identify the moving and rotating direction of the nanodisk more accurately. We use the CSRDR nanostructure which supports a narrow line-width as a 2D plasmon ruler, which can enhance the sensitivity of a plasmon ruler significantly.

Second Harmonic Generation from Ultrathin Gold Nanotubes

We numerically study second harmonic generation from plasmonic nanotubes of air-core and ultrathin gold shell using classical nonlocal hydrodynamic model of free electron. We demonstrate that the nonlocal effect of gold significantly affects the linear optical response and second harmonic generation in such ultrathin nanotubes with shell down to a few nanometers or subnanometer scale, comparing with the conventional local Drude model of gold. We specially emphasize second harmonic generation from the nanotube structures of dipole plasmon resonance at fundamental wavelength and dipole/quadrupole resonance at second harmonic wavelength. Our results indicate that, the output of second harmonic generation is dominantly enhanced by the dipole plasmon resonance at fundamental wavelength via the strong local electric field and also can be significantly enhanced by dipole- and quadrupole-resonant scattering at second harmonic wavelength. The nonlinear sources of second harmonic generation in ultrathin gold nanotubes, including nonlinear Coulomb interaction, convective term, Lorentz force, and nonlinear pressure are studied separately, and the dominant contributions from convective term and nonlinear Coulomb term are reported.

A low lasing threshold and widely tunable spaser based on two dark surface plasmons

We theoretically demonstrate a low threshold and widely tunable spaser based on a plasmonic nanostructure consisting of two sets of disk-rings (TSDR). The TSDR nanostructure supports two dark surface plasmons (SPs), which are excited simultaneously by two bright SPs at Fano dips. The two dark SPs support lower effective mode volume, higher quality factor and higher Purcell factors. When the dark SPs serve as the pumping and lasing mode of a spaser, the spaser has a lower lasing threshold, a higher pump absorption efficiency and a lower threshold absorbed pump power than the spaser based on a bright SP. In addition, the lasing and pumping wavelengths of the spaser proposed in this article can each be tuned over a very wide wavelength range. Our results should be significant for the development of spasers.

Formation of large-area stretchable 3D graphene–nickel particle foams and their sensor applications

Stretchable sensors are essential and important for the new-type stretchable intelligent electronic devices. Three-dimensional (3D) graphene foams are attractive to increase the sensitivity and stretchability, benefiting from a high specific surface area and mechanical strength. Herein, 3D graphene/nickel particles (Gr–NiP) peasecod foams, which were fabricated using CVD and stamp-transfer processes, are proposed and used for stretchable sensor applications. The existing nickel particles, covered by graphene layers, are useful for the formation of 3D nanostructures and separated from each other for stretchable applications. A stretchability (e) of such Gr–NiP foams of up to 80% can be achieved. A low limit of detection (<1%) and excellent linearity (R2 = 0.997) are also present. Sunken ravines between the Ni particles provide favorable sites to grow Ag nanoflowers (AgNFs), which can enhance the electromagnetic coupling for SERS application. Such stretchable substrates can be used as ultrasensitive biosensors to detect the molecules on the surfaces of any shape.