Growth of nanostructure silver films by DC magnetron sputtering for surface enhanced raman scattering substrate

Abstract

Nanostructure silver films were obtained by dc magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The influences of deposition time on the morphology and optical properties were studied by field-emission scanning electron microscope and UV-vis NIR spectrophotometer. It was found that the optical properties of the nanostructure silver film can be effect by surface morphology. The surface enhanced Raman scattering activities of nanostructure Ag films were demonstrated by methylene blue (MB) as probing molecules while the detection limit of MB was found to be as low as 10-5 M from this SERS substrate. © 2016 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.