Plasmonic Properties Of Aluminum Nanocylinders In The Visible Range

Plasmonic and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) studies have been performed on aluminum nanocylinders arrays of different diameters. We observed sharps localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peaks that can be tuned on the whole visible range and having the same behavior than gold nanocylinders. The near-field enhancement was measured by SERS on probe molecules as well as on the indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate using two excitation wavelengths: 660 and 785 nm. No SERS signal of the probe molecules was detected. Using the ITO substrate SERS signal, we were able to measure a small near-field enhancement largely lower than the one reached with gold nanocylinders indicating that this kind of structure in not usable for SERS in this spectral range. A spectral shift is also observed between the SERS measurement and the LSPR position. All the experimental results are compared to DDA simulation in order to provide interpretation of the data.