Plasmon Hybridization of Au Hollow Nanocone Array for SERS Sensing.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy plays a vital role in highly sensitive fingerprint detections and non-invasive point-of-care diagnostics. However, elaborate fabrication of a compact nanostructure-based plasmon hybridization to realize high-sensitivity SERS-active substrate remains a challenge. In this work, an Au hybrid hollow nanocone SERS substrate is successfully fabricated by ion-track technology. The overall electromagnetic enhancement is developed due to the synergistic effect of merging individual nanostructures onto one three-dimensional Au hybrid hollow nanocone SERS substrate. The near-field optical characterizations and the electromagnetic numerical simulations exhibit highly near-field nanofocusing. The reflectivity of the SERS substrate is less than 32%. The SERS spectra of rhodamine 6G molecules with a concentration detection limit of 10−8 M are analyzed, and the enhancement factor is ~ 0.75 × 105. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]