Magnetron sputtering of silver nanowires using anodic aluminum oxide template: a new active substrate of surface enhanced Raman scattering and an investigation of its enhanced mechanism.

A high quality anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template with ordered apertures about 50-80 nm was fabricated by anodizing aluminum in electrolytes through a two-step method, and silver nanowires with diameters from 40 nm to 70 nm were prepared on this AAO template by magnetron sputtering. On the glass covered with silver nanowires, high quality surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of sudan II (C18H16N2O) with enhancement factors of 10(5) were obtained. And comparison of SERS spectra on silver nanowires with the SERS spectra of silver colloids indicates that main enhanced mode is lightning rod effect of nanorods on the Sudan II/silver nanowires system.