Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Science

Program

Chemistry

Supervisor

Dr. François Lagugné-Labarthet

Abstract

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is of particular interest to enhance the limit of detection for spectroscopic techniques such as Raman and fluorescence via a surface enhancement from metallic nanostructures. In this study, using nanosphere lithography (NSL) technique, a series of gold nanostructures over glass surfaces are prepared. These nanostructures are used to record the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectrum of benzenethiol and azobenzene thiol and the vibrational modes are compared to literature. Once protected with an ultrathin layer of SiO2, the gold nanostructures are investigated using scanning confocal fluorescence microscopy to detect the fluorescence from a dye solution. Herein, we show that the NSL-fabricated nanotriangle arrays made with particle sizes with dimensions closer to the excitation wavelength can be used to study the SERS spectrum of the molecule and, in the case of surface enhanced fluorescence (SEF), display the most intense hot-spots for each bow-tie assembly oriented along the polarization direction of the impinging light.

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