Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrate fabricated via nanomasking technique for biological sensor applications

The nanomasking fabrication technique has been shown to be capable of producing many sub-10 nm gaps between metallic structures over a wafer-scale area. This provides the opportunity to utilize the technique in spectroscopy signal enhancement applications. Here we describe a device designed via nanomasking that holds potential as a surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate for biosensing or other applications. The high density of plasmonic hotspot nanogaps improves the feasibility of these types of patterns for signal enhancement, as it provides ease of use and increased speed of sample deposition for taking spectrum. The ability to fabricate these patterns with high repeatability at mass production scale is another benefit of nanomasking-fabricated spectroscopy substrates. This work demonstrates tests of fabricated devices for use in a custom Raman spectroscopy system as a potential source of signal enhancement. Also, theoretical enhancement results are calculated for comparison via computational electromagnetic studies.