Fabrication of Nanoparticle Agglomerate Films by Spark Ablation and Their Application in Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

This paper presents a systematic study of the investigation of nanoparticle (NP) agglomerate films fabricated via depositing spark-generated Au, Ag, and Au/Ag NPs onto quartz microscope coverslips in a low-pressure inertial impactor. The primary focus of the study is to characterize these nanostructures and to examine their potential application in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The characterization of the produced nanostructures was carried out by performing optical absorbance measurements, morphology, and composition analysis, as well as testing the SERS performance of the NP films at three different excitation laser wavelengths in the visible range. The study aims to investigate the relationship between the optical properties, the morphology, and the enhancement of the produced samples at different excitations, and the results are presented and discussed. The study highlights the potential of using spark ablation and inertial impaction-based deposition as a method for producing nanoparticle films for SERS.