Maximizing Nanoscale Disorder in Block Copolymers for Orientation-Independent SERS Platform Toward Non-Invasive...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Spectroscopy

Background:

• High-performance optical molecular diagnostics demand precise light-matter interactions for quantitative accuracy.
• Existing nanogap architectures, while sensitive, suffer from polarization-dependent responses due to long-range orientational order.
• This limits their quantitative reliability in diverse sensing environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To engineer nanogap architectures with controlled randomness for optical isotropy.
• To maintain nanoscale periodicity and short-range orientational correlation.
• To develop a universally applicable platform for quantitative molecular sensing.

Main Methods:

• Introducing controlled randomness into vertically aligned lamellae via grain-size regulation.
• Utilizing natural ridge-like architectures as inspiration for stochastic domain generation.
• Performing quantitative assessments of structural entropy and numerical simulations of localized hot-spots.

Main Results:

• Achieved optical isotropy by suppressing long-range anisotropy while preserving nanoscale periodicity.
• Developed stochastic architectures exhibiting surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) responses insensitive to polarization and incident direction.
• Demonstrated spatially uniform signal reproducibility and statistically robust sensing.

Conclusions:

• The developed stochastic nanogap architectures provide a universal basis for quantitative molecular sensing.
• The platform enables high-fidelity clinical diagnostics, including metabolic profiling and AI-driven predictive modeling.
• This approach overcomes limitations of traditional anisotropic nanostructures for reliable molecular detection.