Design and fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures for spectroscopic applications

This work is focused on the design and fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures for spectroscopic applications. Our goal is to fabricate large-surface-area plasmonic nanostructures that provide local enhancement of electromagnetic fields for applications in fluorescence and Raman scattering spectroscopy. Periodic two-dimensional arrays of nanogrooves and nanopillars are obtained by holographic photolithography that makes use of surface relief gratings on azo-polymer films. Numerical calculations are performed to optimize the geometrical and material parameters of the structures in order to maximize the field enhancement factor.