Rational Design of Plasmonic Nanoarrays for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Applications

Plasmonic nanoarrays have emerged as attractive platforms for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), offering systematic control over geometry, optical response, and interfacial properties. This review focuses on the rational design and template-assisted fabrication of plasmonic nanoarrays for SERS. We first summarize the electromagnetic and chemical enhancement mechanisms and discuss design considerations specific to these nanoarrays, including particle geometry, substrate effects, and collective plasmonic coupling. We then review representative fabrication strategies based on nanosphere and anodic aluminum oxide templates, highlighting how template geometry and deposition conditions, material composition, and interfacial engineering enable the construction of coupled, anisotropic, multicomponent, and flexible nanoarrays. Finally, we discuss their applications in analytical SERS and mechanistic studies of interfacial processes. Particular attention is given to hotspot engineering, molecular accessibility and selectivity, and the use of structurally defined nanoarrays to probe charge transfer, hot-carrier processes, and plasmon-mediated reactions.