Plasmonic-enhanced Raman scattering of graphene on growth substrates and its application in SERS

Abstract

We detail a facile method for enhancing the Raman signals of as-grown graphene on Cu foils by depositing gold nanoislands (Au Nis) onto the surface of graphene. It is found that an enhancement of up to 49 fold in the graphene Raman signal has been achieved by depositing a 4 nm thick Au film. The enhancement is considered to be related to the coupling between graphene and the plasmon modes of Au Nis, as confirmed by the finite element simulations. The plasmonic effect of the Au/graphene/Cu hybrid platform leads to a strong absorption at the resonant wavelength whose position shifts from visible light (640 nm) to near-infrared (1085 nm) when the thickness of Au films is increased from 2 nm to 18 nm. Finally, we demonstrate that hybrid substrates are reliable surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) systems, showing an enhancement factor of ∼10⁶ for dye molecules Rhodamine B and Rhodamine 6G with uniform and stable response and a detection limit of as low as 0.1 nM for Sudan III and Sudan IV.