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Highly stable silver nanoparticles for SERS applications

Abstract:

Plasmonics sensor configurations utilizing localized plasmon resonances in silver nanostructures typically suffer from rapid degradation of silver in ambient atmospheric conditions. In this work, we report on the fabrication and detailed characterization of ensembles of monocrystalline silver nanoparticles (NPs), which exhibit a long-term stability of optical properties under ambient conditions without any protective treatments. Ensembles with different densities (surface coverages) of size-selected NPs (diameters from 12.5 to 24 nm) on quartz substrates are fabricated using the cluster-beam technique and characterized by linear spectroscopy, surface-enhanced Raman scattering microscopy as well as transmission electron, helium-ion and atomic force microscopies. It is found that the fabricated ensembles of monocrystalline silver NPs preserve their plasmonic properties (monitored with optical spectroscopy) and …