Free-standing optical gold bowtie nanoantenna with variable gap size for enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Nano Lett. 2010 Dec 8;10(12):4952-5. doi: 10.1021/nl102963g. Epub 2010 Nov 19.

Abstract

We describe plasmonic interactions in suspended gold bowtie nanoantenna leading to strong electromagnetic field (E) enhancements. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) was used to demonstrate the performance of the nanoantenna. In addition to the well-known gap size dependence, up to 2 orders of magnitude additional enhancement is observed with elevated bowties. The overall behavior is described by a SERS enhancement factor exceeding 10(11) along with an anomalously weak power law dependence of E on the gap size in a range from 8 to 50 nm that is attributed to a plasmonic nanocavity effect occurring when the plasmonic interactions enter a strongly coupled regime.