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  • Methods to fabricate and re...
    Mahapatra, Sayantan; Li, Linfei; Schultz, Jeremy F.; Jiang, Nan

    Journal of Raman spectroscopy, February 2021, 2021-02-00, 20210201, Letnik: 52, Številka: 2
    Journal Article

    Scanning tunneling microscopy‐based tip‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is a powerful analytical technique for surface characterization, providing both topological and chemical information with sub‐nm spatial resolution, well below the diffraction limit of light. In order to take advantage of plasmonic activity, it is necessary to use silver (Ag) probes due to their plasmonic range in the visible region. However, the Ag probe fabrication process remains challenging and is not yet standardized in practice, leading to inconsistent enhancements even for two similar types of tips prepared consecutively. In this work, we demonstrate an alternative way to reuse and recycle a plasmonic tip for distinct molecular systems inside an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV). We provide evidence of the ability to recycle tips without compromising the TERS experimental results. A long‐term preservation (>2 months) of plasmonically active probes inside UHV is demonstrated. Ar+ ion sputtering is shown here as an effective way to eliminate the contaminations resulting from the tip etching process for tip‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) experiments. Furthermore, this method is extremely useful to get rid of molecular contaminations while preserving plasmonic activity. The effectiveness of these probes has been demonstrated for different sets of TERS experiments with different excitation lasers, providing a routine technique to reuse, recycle, and preserve the enhancing plasmonic probes for a relatively much longer time (>2 months in this case).