Insight into the working wavelength of hotspot effects generated by popular nanostructures

Abstract A proper excitation wavelength is much important for the application of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in the biochemical field. Here, based on a SERS substrate model with an incident Gaussian beam, we investigate the dependence of the electric field enhancement on the incident wavelength of the excitation laser for popular nanostructures, including nanosphere dimer, nanorod dimer, and nanorod arrays. The results in the present manuscript indicate that both the nanosphere and nanorod dimer present a much broader plasmonic excitation wavelength range extending to the near-infrared region. The enhancement effect of Nanorod arrays is strongly dependent on the incident direction of excitation light. Finally, according to the conclusions above, a SERS substrate consisting of nanocubes based on the SPP eigen-mode is proposed and the electric field enhancement is homogeneous, and insensitive to the polarization of the incident laser. The enhancement factor is not ultrahigh; however, good homogeneousness permits for quantitative detection of lower concentration components in mixtures. Graphical abstract: By investigating the dependence of the electric field enhancement on the incident wavelength of the excitation laser for popular nanostructures, we propose a SERS substrate consisting of Au nanocubes based on the SPP eigenmode. The electric field enhancement is homogeneous, and insensitive to the polarization of the incident laser. Though the enhancement factor is not ultrahigh, good homogeneousness permits for quantitative detection of lower concentration components in mixtures.