Gold@silver bimetal nanoparticles/pyramidal silicon 3D substrate with high reproducibility for high-performance SERS.

A novel and efficient surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate has been presented based on Gold@silver/pyramidal silicon 3D substrate (Au@Ag/3D-Si). By combining the SERS activity of Ag, the chemical stability of Au and the large field enhancement of 3D-Si, the Au@Ag/3D-Si substrate possesses perfect sensitivity, homogeneity, reproducibility and chemical stability. Using R6G as probe molecule, the SERS results imply that the Au@Ag/3D-Si substrate is superior to the 3D-Si, Ag/3D-Si and Au/3D-Si substrate. We also confirmed these excellent behaviors in theory via a commercial COMSOL software. The corresponding experimental and theoretical results indicate that our proposed Au@Ag/3D-Si substrate is expected to develop new opportunities for label-free SERS detections in biological sensors, biomedical diagnostics and food safety.