Structure−Activity Relationships in Gold Nanoparticle Dimers and Trimers for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Understanding the detailed relationship between nanoparticle structure and activity remains a significant challenge for the field of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. To this end, the structural and optical properties of individual plasmonic nanoantennas comprised of Au nanoparticle assemblies that are coated with organic reporter molecules and encapsulated by a SiO2 shell have been determined using correlated transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dark-field Rayleigh scattering microscopy, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) microscopy, and finite element method (FEM) calculations. The distribution of SERS enhancement factors (EFs) for a structurally and optically diverse set of nanoantennas is remarkably narrow. For a collection of 30 individual nanoantennas ranging from dimers to heptamers, the EFs vary by less than 2 orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the EFs for the hot-spot-containing nanoparticles are uncorrelated to aggregation state and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelengt...