Novel index-guided photonic crystal fiber surface-enhanced Raman scattering probe.

We demonstrate a novel index-guided (IG) photonic crystal fiber (PCF) surface-enhanced Raman probe. Different from a regular PCF, the IGPCF has four big air holes inserted between the solid silica core and the photonic crystal cladding holes. The gold nanoparticles, serving as the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate, are either coated on the inner surface of the holes or mixed in the analyte solution in two separate experiments, respectively. The analyte solution enters the holes via the capillary effect. The excitation light propagating in the silica core interacts with the gold nanoparticles and the analyte through the evanescent wave which extends significantly into the four big holes when they are filled with liquid leading to a large interaction volume between the excitation light and the nanoparticles/analyte.