Coaxial nanowires as plasmon-mediated remote nanosensors

Abstract

This study reports on the plasmon-mediated remote Raman sensing promoted by specially designed coaxial nanowires. This unusual geometry for Raman study is based on the separation, by several micrometres, of the excitation laser spot, on one tip of the nanowire, and the Raman detection at the other tip. The very weak efficiency of Raman emission makes it challenging in a remote configuration. For the proof-of-concept, we designed coaxial nanowires consisting of a gold core to propagate surface plasmon polaritons and a Raman-emitting shell of poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene). The success of the fabrication was demonstrated by correlating, for the same single nanowire, a morphological analysis by electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy analysis. Importantly for probing the remote-Raman effect, the original hard template-based process allows one to control the location of the polymer shell all along the nanowire, or only close to one or the two nanowire tips. Such all-in-one single nanowires could have applications in the remote detection of photo-degradable substances and for exploring 1D nanosources for integrated photonic and plasmonic systems.