SERS-active substrates for investigating ultrathin spin-crossover films
Résumé
The detection and characterization of extremely small quantities of material (e.g. ultrathin films) are still a big challenge in order to study the change of phys. properties when reducing the size of the system. Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) is known as a sensitive technique for detecting even isolated mols. of a given material. When the sample is deposited on Au or Ag nanostructures the Raman signal intensity of the studied compd. is exalted. In this paper are presented two different approaches to obtain SERS spectra of ultrathin films of the spin-crossover compd. Fe(pz)[Pt(CN)4]. Using both strategies we were able to record SERS spectra of continuous thin films and nanometric patterns (down to 200 nm). Moreover, by comparing the two methods, we suggest that the resulting SERS spectrum is attributed to the mols. located at the vicinity of the SERS-active substrate. Thermal study of the SERS spectrum in the spin-crossover temp. range is also discussed. [on SciFinder(R)]