A Cost-Efficient Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) Molecular Detection Technique for Clinical Applications

In this paper, we present a cost-efficient method for fabricating nanostructures for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates. In this method, an aluminum foil is treated as a base substrate for in vitro application, but as a sacrificial substrate for in vivo application. Au is sputtered on etched aluminum foil at a thickness of 20 nm, which leads to a 106 times enhancement in a preliminary result from the surface enhanced Raman scattering substrate for in vitro measurements. The technique is also applied for in vivo measurements after etching the sacrificial aluminum foil substrate, resulting in enhanced Raman signals from the interior of opaque specimens. This shows that Au nanostructure on substrates is a promising technique for clinical diagnostic purposes, as a test probe can be covered by the nano-patterned gold in a remote spectrometer via an articulated arm.