Influence of Experimental Parameters on the Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering via Gold Nanoparticle Arrays

Gold nanoparticle arrays are fabricated for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and the effect of experimental parameters such as annealing temperature and array thickness of nanoparticles on the SERS signals are investigated. The particle distribution and particle size are dense and uniform on the glass substrate when the 10nm gold film was annealed at 270°C and strong SERS signals for Rhodamine 6G were achieved via the 532 nm excitation. The SERS signal at 1650 cm^-1 is enhanced more than 6 times as compared to that of the gold film without annealing. The strong SERS behavior of gold nanoparticle arrays may broaden the SERS applications in biomedical and analytical chemistry.