Fabrication of nanoparticle micro-arrays patterned using direct write laser photoreduction

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has recently increased in popularity for high sensitivity chemical detection. The method described here quickly produces micro-arrays of 2 μm diameter silver microdots on a glass surface using a focused laser source. The same laser and microscope system is used to perform the SERS experiment. SERS enhancement is demonstrated and shown to be localized to the silver array. Nanoparticle nucleation and growth occurs preferentially at the glass surface due to unique interface conditions of higher temperature, photonic flux and the increased density of silver ions at the glass surface, resulting from adsorption onto hydroxyl sites.