Hot spots in silver nanowire bundles for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

We report a simple strategy for placing analyte molecules in hot spots between closely spaced nanowires leading to intense SERS enhancement. The results are highly reproducible from experiment to experiment likely because of the regularity of the SERS substrate, which consists of highly ordered and regular silver nanowires fabricated in porous aluminum oxide. Because the silver nanowires are sealed in the pores of PAO, this system is potentially immune to contamination until it is ready for use, at which point the alumina matrix is etched, thereby allowing the silver nanowires to collapse into bundles and form hot spots in the region of close contact between the nanowires, trapping the analyte in those junctions.