Nanoparticle attachment on silver corrugated-wire nanoantenna for large increases of surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

Using three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation, we described a systematic investigation on the electric field enhancement of the silver corrugated nanowires. The enhancement factor (EF) of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for corrugated nanowires can be markedly increased by 1 or 2 orders of magnitude as compared with the smooth nanowires. Moreover, the EF can be further increased with nanoparticle attachment on the corrugated Ag nanowires owing to the coupling between the discrete plasmon state of the nanoparticles and continuum plasmon states of the corrugated nanowire or the crossed corrugated nanowires. The surface plasmonic field distribution of Ag nanowires can be effectively controlled by the polarization of the incident light. Raman spectrum measurements show that the relatively dense corrugated nanowires exhibit a relatively high reproducibility and SERS enhancement attributed to the elimination of polarization-dependent SERS-anisotropic enhancement via the overlapping of randomly distributed Ag nanowires. Such nanostructures as potential nanoantennas offer a route to optimize plasmon coupling for designing miniaturization integration.