Nanostructured silver substrates produced by cluster-assisted gas jet deposition for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. (May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Starinskiy, Sergey V.; Safonov, Alexey I.; Shukhov, Yuri G.; Sulyeva, Veronica S.; Korolkov, Ilya V.; Volodin, Vladimir A.; Kibis, Lidiya S.; Bulgakov, Alexander V.
• Is Part Of: Vacuum. Volume 199(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-05
• Subjects: Nanostructured films -- Silver clusters -- Gas jet deposition -- Supersonic jet -- Mass spectrometry -- Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy -- Plasmonics; Vacuum -- Periodicals; 621.55
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vacuum.2022.110929
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0042-207X

Abstract

Abstract: The gas jet deposition (GJD) technique is a very promising method for synthesis of nanostructured films allowing fabrication of uniform thin layers over large areas with high growth rates. In this work, thin silver films of various morphology with the thickness in the range 10–50 nm are produced by the GJD method using a supersonic jet of silver vapor with helium as a carrier gas. The film morphology transformation with increasing thickness is shown to occur from individual nanostructures to a continuous film. The jet is investigated by time-of-flight mass spectrometry and small silver clusters in the deposited flow are observed which are supposed to play a key role in the nanostrtucture formation. The GJD-produced films demonstrate excellent uniformity over a ∼100 cm 2 deposited area and exhibit remarkable plasmonic properties. The surface-enhancement Raman scattering (SERS) activity of the films to R6G is investigated and the enhancement factor of about 10 5 is obtained with the detection limit of 10 −8 M R6G. The influence of morphology on plasmonic properties of the films is discussed. Highlights: Ag films with various structures and thicknesses deposited by Gas Jet Deposition. Small silver clusters in the deposited jet are nucleation centers at the surface. Isolated nanostructures forms on the substrates at nearly room temperature. Films exhibit good efficiency for SERS detection of Rhodamine 6G. The enhancement factor value is 0.8 × 10 5 and the detection limit is 10 −8 M.