Gold-coated porous silicon as a SERS substrate for near-infrared excitation: Off- and on-resonant conditions

Porous silicon, being one of the most popular SERS-active substrates, was in this work utilized for near-infrared 1064 nm excitation which minimizes the radiation-induced degradation of molecules. The production of porous silicon photonic crystals and deposition of gold nanoparticles, as the two possible methods for quenching the crystal silicon band-gap photoluminescence, were thoroughly discussed. For the off-resonant laser excitation conditions, gold nanoparticles were grown on porous silicon by the immersion plating procedure. For the on-resonant conditions, gold nanorods with the appropriate aspect ratio were synthesized by a seed-mediated protocol and deposited on the porous silicon surface. The capability of these metal-dielectric substrates toward SERS enhancement was evaluated using crystal violet dye and the advantages and drawbacks of both methods were addressed in detail. The obtained detection limits for the crystal violet dye were in the range between 10−7 and 10−8 M. So far, gold-coated porous silicon SERS-active substrates for near-infrared 1064 nm excitation have not been reported, both for the off- and on-resonant regimes.