Scalable Metal-coated and Plasma Nanotextured Polymeric Surfaces for High Performance SERS Detection

This preprint reports new scalable, sensitive, uniform, and inexpensive polymer-based SERS substrates fabricated via oxygen-plasma nanotexturing and metal deposition. Tuning the geometrical nanostructures and inter-feature gaps on the SERS substrate by adjusting the specific fabrication parameters can lead to high hot spot density. We demonstrate that if the inter-feature gaps formed on the SERS surface create a network near the percolation threshold, then the enhancement factor can reach a maximum. Finally, after benchmarking, the resulting EF for the presented SERS substrates is higher than some of the best commercial substrates available. The record includes the manuscript and Supporting Information.