Design and fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures for spectroscopic applications

Abstract

This work is focused on the design and fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures for spectroscopic applications. Our goal is to fabricate large-surface-area plasmonic nanostructures that provide local enhancement of electromagnetic fields for applications in fluorescence and Raman scattering spectroscopy. Periodic two-dimensional arrays of nanogrooves and nanopillars are obtained by holographic photolithography that makes use of surface relief gratings on azo-polymer films. Numerical calculations are performed to optimize the geometrical and material parameters of the structures in order to maximize the field enhancement factor.