Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Using Facile NanoPlasmonic Devices

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Raman spectroscopy is a powerful optical technique for measuring the composition of chemical mixtures. Eachtype of molecule has a unique colour "fingerprint" which appears when the chemical sample is illuminated bylow-power laser light. Although highly precise, Raman analysis is often limited by the inherent faintness of theRaman signal.Tornado Spectral Systems (Toronto, ON) has invented a new type of spectrometer (colour measurementdevice) which overcomes the faintness problem in many cases, but which is still unable to make qualitymeasurements of various types of chemical mixtures. These limitations can be overcome by using specializednanophotonic/nanoplasmonic optical amplification devices discovered at the University of Toronto. Theseoptical amplifiers can concentrate and intensify light within the nanoscale domains of its surface and henceenhance the light-matter interaction in close proximity of these domains. Such optical amplifier devices cansignificantly boost the strength of the Raman fingerprint signal and hence enable accurate measurements ofchemical concentrations even under the most difficult conditions.The objective of this project is to experimentally demonstrate the viability of these novel nanoplasmonicdevices for enhanced detection sensitivity and hence its integration in Tornado's Raman Spectrometer.