Ultrabroadband Metasurface for Efficient Light Trapping and Localization: A Universal Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Substrate for "All" Excitation Wavelengths

Abstract

Most reported surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates can work for individual excitation wavelengths only. Therefore, different substrates have to be used for different excitation wavelengths, which consumes more biological/chemical materials, substrates, and measurement time. Here, an ultrabroadband super absorbing metasurface that can work as a universal substrate for low cost and high performance SERS sensing is reported. Due to broadband light trapping and localized field enhancement, this structure can work for almost "all" available laser lines from 450 to 1100 nm. This predicted feature is validated by SERS experiment using five different excitation laser lines, obtaining a high enhancement factor of 5.3 × 107 and very good uniformity over large areas.