Control of surface plasmon resonance in out-diffused silver nanoislands for surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Abstract We present the studies of self-assembled silver nanoislands on the surface of silver ion-exchanged glasses. The nanoislands were formed by out-diffusion of reduced silver atoms from the bulk of the glass to its surface. Control of silver ions distribution in the glass by thermal poling after the ion exchange allowed formation of relatively big, up to 250 nm, isolated silver nanoislands while without the poling an ensemble of silver nanoislands with average size from several to tens of nanometers with random size distribution was formed. The nanoislands were characterized using atomic force microscopy and spectral measurements. We used optical absorption spectroscopy for “random” nanoislands and dark field scattering spectroscopy for isolated ones, corresponding spectra showed peaks in the vicinity of 450 nm and 600 nm, respectively. The “random” nanoislands significantly enhanced Raman scattering from Rhodamine 6G, also the modification of Raman signal from deposited on the surface of the samples bacteriorhodopsin in purple membranes was registered.