Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) makes the Raman signals, as fingerprints of different vibration modes of chemical bonds, significant in practical applications. Two main mechanisms, chemical and physical, are attributed to the SERS of molecules adsorbed on metals. The physical mechanism plays a major role in SERS, which is the focus of our paper. Recent SERS systems are mostly based on dimer structures, i.e. nanoparticle pairs, of noble metals. Large amplification of electrical field occurs in the gap of a dimer structure compared with a single nanoparticle. The above gap positions are called as " hot spots” of SERS. In addition, the reproducibility and reliability of SERS substrates are also important for practical applications. Here we use periodical subwavelength metallic structures to meet such needs, and develop other kinds of electrical field enhancement mechanisms. We present the electrical field enhancement of the band-edge mode of surface plasmon polariton, gap plasmon polariton mode, as well as their coupling mode. We choose one-dimensional subwavelength metallic structures to clarify the physical mechanism. Our purpose is to develop subwavelength metallic structures with even and intensive " hot spots”, serving as ultrasensitive solid-state SERS substrates with excellent reproducibility and reliability.

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate the second harmonic generation of long-range surface plasmon polaritons via quasi-phase matching in lithium niobate. After depositing a 9/13 nm thick Au film on periodically poled lithium niobate, TiO2 of about 2.3 μm in thickness is evaporated on the sample as a refractive-index-matching material. This dielectric (periodically poled lithium niobate)-metal(Au)-dielectric(TiO2) sandwich structure can support the transmission of long-range surface plasmon polaritons through it. By designing a moderate ferroelectric domain period of periodically poled lithium niobate, the phase mismatch between the fundamental wave and second harmonic wave of the long-range surface plasmon polaritons can be compensated and a second harmonic wave can be generated effectively. This can be used to provide integrated plasmonic devices with attractive applications in quantum and classic information processing.

One of the current challenges in nanozyme-based nanotechnology is the utilization of multifunctionalities in one material. In this regard, Au@Pt nanoparticles (NPs) with excellent enzyme-mimicking activities due to the Pt shell and unique surface plasmon resonance features from the Au core have attracted enormous research interest. However, the unique surface plasmon resonance features from the Au core have not been widely utilized. The practical problem of the optical-damping nature of Pt hinders the research into the combination of Au@Pt NPs' enzyme-mimicking properties with their surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activities. Herein, we rationally tuned the Pt amount to achieve Au@Pt NPs with simultaneous plasmonic and enzyme-mimicking activities. The results showed that Au@Pt NPs with 2.5% Pt produced the highest Raman signal in 2 min, which benefited from the remarkably accelerated catalytic oxidation of 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine with the decorated Pt and strong electric field retained from the Au core for SERS. This study not only demonstrates the great promise of combining bimetallic nanomaterials' multiple functionalities but also provides rational guidelines to design high-performance nanozymes for potential biomedical applications.

We report a broadband tungsten absorber based on a nanocone metallic resonant structure fabricated by self-assembly nanosphere lithography. In experimental demonstration, the fabricated absorber has more than 90% average absorption efficiency and shows superior angular tolerance in the entire visible and near-infrared spectral region. We envision that this large-scale nanostructured broadband optical absorber would find great potential in the applications of high performance optoelectronic platforms and solar-thermal energy harvesting systems.

The band structure of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on the Ag surface in the presence of gratings and SPP-based surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) are investigated theoretically and experimentally. The SPP bandgap position can be tuned by geometric parameters. The SPP band edge dominates the SERS behavior. The template stripping process is introduced to reduce SPP propagation losses, improving SERS sensitivity by ∼40. Apart from flexibility and a moderate SERS enhancement factor of the order of 105–106, the SPP band structure is highly reproducible with a relative standard deviation of 10.9%. Our results open opportunities for SPP band structures to serve as SERS substrates.