Metal and glass structure for use in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and method for fabricating same

Abstract

A surface enhanced Raman scattering structure may be used for detecting analytes such as organic contaminants in air and aqueous environments, and metallic and anionic contaminants in water. The structure is fabricated by etching a surface of a glass substrate to form a roughened surface; creating an adhesion layer on the roughtened surface; forming metal islands, such as gold, silver, or copper, on the adhesion layer to create a composite structure; and placing the composite structure in a thiol solution to form a self-assembled monolayer over the metal islands. The thiol solution is selected to attract an analyte of interest. The roughened surface enhances the SERS response of the structure and preferably has an average surface roughness that does not exceed about 2500 Å and a periodicity that does not exceed about 12.5 microns.

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