Aluminum nanostructures for 355 nm surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy of fluorescing chemicals

Abstract The applications of Raman spectroscopy have been limited by the presence of the fluorescence emitted by some samples. This interference can be depressed by shifting the excitation source used in Raman spectroscopy to the high‐energetic ultraviolet (UV) or deep ultraviolet (DUV) ranges. Plasmon resonance of aluminum (Al) nanostructures can play an important role in surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) of fluorescence samples. Al active nanostructures have been produced for the first time on the aluminum nitride (AlN) substrates by nanosecond (ns) laser pulses or on fused silica by direct picosecond (ps) laser deposition. The efficiency of the Al active nanostructures produced on AlN for 355 nm SERS was simulated using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The ability of using the Al active nanostructures has been proven for the first time to study rhodamine 6G (R6G) and methylene blue (MB) as probe fluorescing molecules for 355 nm SERS. The SERS spectra at different conditions have also been achieved.