Three-dimensional surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platform based on microstructure fibers has many advantages for rapid liquid detection due to its microfluidic channels and light guidance. The fiber mode field distribution determines the light-analyte interaction strength but has rarely been studied in SERS applications. In this paper, we numerically and experimentally investigate the mode field distribution in suspended-core fibers decorated with gold nanoparticles. The interaction between the core mode and surface mode is controlled by changing the density of gold nanoparticles on the inner surface. The avoided crossing wavelength shifts linearly to red with the decrease of the nanoparticle spacing. With an optimized nanoparticle spacing of 20 nm, the avoided crossing occurs near the laser wavelength of 633 nm, which greatly increases the power ratio in the liquid channels and hence improves the SERS performance. The detection limit for crystal violet was 10−9 M, and the enhancement factor was 108. The avoided crossing mechanism can be applied to all fiber SERS probes for sensitivity improvement.
Photonic crystal fibers (PCFs), providing ingenious microfluidic channels and intense light guidance, have many advantages in the detection of three-dimensional surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In solid-core PCFs, the light interacts with the sample in the form of an evanescent field, which is weak and limits the SERS detection performance. In this paper, we propose a new mechanism based on avoided crossings between the fiber core mode and the surface mode, which greatly enhances the laser power ratio in the liquid channels and improves the SERS sensitivity. Numerical results show that the intensity in the liquid channels can be increased from 2.8 % to 42 %. To realize this avoided-crossing effect in PCFs experimentally, the silver mirror reaction was optimized which can decorate discrete and densely distributed silver nanoparticles on the hydroxylated surface of the microfluidic channels in less than 15 min. The resulting SERS-active suspended-core PCF has ultra-high sensitivity, with a detection limit of 10 −12 M, and an enhancement factor of 10 10 for crystal violet solution. It also provides good stability and reproducibility with a relative standard deviation of 4.8 %. This ultra-sensitive and highly reproducible PCF-SERS probe has great potential for application in rapid in-situ detection.
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