Dependence of the Raman Intensity on the Surface Coverage of Nanoparticles in a SERS Active Gold Nanoparticulate Film

Abstract

The relationship between the surface coverage of nanoparticles and the intensity of surface enhanced Raman scattering(SERS) in a two dimensional gold nanoparticulate film was studied. Strong enhancement was observed which is due to the nanoparticle substrate electromagnetic coupling and the contribution of chemical enhancement. It was found that SERS intensity increases linearly at lower coverage, then negatively deflected from the initial line, and finally reach a plateau at increased coverages. We attributed it to the absorption and scattering caused by the neighboring nanoparticles.