Nanomanufacture metallic nanoparticles on a fiber probe for 1064-nm surface-enhanced Raman scattering

This letter presents 1064-nm Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) on an optical fiber probe, or 1064nm-SERS-on-fiber. Metallic nanoparticles are manufactured on an optical fiber probe by using optothermal surface bubbles under ambient conditions. An optothermal surface bubble is a laser-induced micro-sized bubble that is formed on a solid-liquid interface. The SERS activity of the optical fiber probe for 1064-nm Raman microscopy is tested with Rhodamine 6G in aqueous solution. The 1064nm-SERS-on-fiber can reduce the fluorescent background noise that commonly exists in other Raman systems. It can also compensate for the decreased Raman signal due to the use of infrared Raman laser. The 1064nm-SERS-on-fiber will find potential applications in low-background-noise biosensing and endoscopy.