Designing SERS platforms beyond hotspot engineering : the cases of analyte manipulations for analytical and medical applications

Abstract

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a molecule-specific spectroscopic technique with diverse applications in (bio)chemistry, clinical diagnosis and toxin sensing. While hotspot engineering has expedited SERS development, it remains challenging to detect small molecules with low Raman cross-section and/or no specific affinity to plasmonic surfaces. In this talk, I will discuss my group’s effort in improving SERS detection performances with focus on designing SERS platforms that can capture and confine analytes near SERS-active surfaces.