Controllable fabrication of silver nanofilament for using as tip in tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

Abstract Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is a technique offering chemical information at a single molecule level as well as chemical fingerprints with nanoscale spatial resolution. Currently, TERS tip fabrication in terms of size, shape, and stability has still been challenged due to its low reproducibility. In this work, electron beam irradiation and chemical bath deposition (CBD) were used to create a silver nanofilament (AgNF) on an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip, and it was further used as a TERS tip. Conditions, i.e., accelerated voltage and irradiation time, in the electron beam irradiation with different Ag thin film thicknesses in the production of the AgNF tip were investigated. The highest density of AgNF of the TERS probe was achieved with 52.5×109 NF/cm2 by using an accelerated voltage of 20 kV and an irradiation time of 20 minutes. This study will pave the way for the use of the AgNF tip as the TERS tip.