Fabrication of nanowires from Polyimide for transparent SERS devices

In this work, free-standing nanowires with high transparency are fabricated from Polyimide (PI), adopting a lithography-free and micromachining-compatible process, which involves only PI spin-coating and Ar-plasma bombardment. By sputtering a thin layer of noble metal on the nanowires, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) devices can be obtained. Since the fabrication process is independent of substrate materials, nanowires are able to be generated on glass substrates, thus transparent SERS devices are achieved. In the devices, penetration of laser from the back side to detect molecules on the top surfaces is allowed. With such devices, a new route for practical detection of various analytes is opened, consequently, application fields of the SERS devices can be broadened.