Hot spots in different metal nanostructures for plasmon-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Noble metal nanostructures are able to concentrate light into small volumes, which enhances greatly the local electromagnetic (EM) field near the metal nanostructures. The areas with greatly enhanced EM field become "hot spots" for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), which utilizes the field enhancement properties of metal nanostructures to amplify the usually weak Raman scattering signals. The preparation of metal nanostructures with superior SERS performances is one of the main topics in the SERS field and is important for the applications of SERS in sensing and analysis. In this feature article, we review several different kinds of metal structures for SERS, including coupled metal nanostructures, nanostructure arrays, nano/micro structures with textured surfaces and graphene-mediated SERS substrates. Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) using the metal tip of the scanning tunneling microscope is also discussed. Besides the intensity enhancement in SERS and TERS, some less studied aspects are highlighted; for example, the remote excitation technique, tuning the nanogap of gold nanorod dimers through strain control on an elastomeric substrate, manipulating Raman emission polarization using asymmetric nanoantennas, and investigating plasmon-enhanced chemical reactions by TERS.