US Patent 7460224 - Arrays of nanostructures for SERS

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7460224.html

This patent from Opto Trace Technologies is based on a finding that SERS, which is a highly sensitive a molecular detection mechanism, can be improved by arranging both active nanostructured surfaces formed using noble metals and inactive nanostructured surfaces formed using dielectric materials side be side. Claim 1 reads:

1. A sensing device for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), comprising:

a substrate;

a plurality of nano structures on the substrate, wherein each of the nano structures is a three dimensional object having at least one dimension smaller than 300 nanometer, and at least one of the nano structures comprises an active SERS nano surface and an inactive SERS nano surface in proximity to the active nano SERS surface; and

an adsorption layer on the active SERS nano surface or the inactive SERS nano surface.