Non-Plasmonic SERS with Silicon: Is It Really Safe? New Insights into Opto-Thermics of Core/Shell Microbeads

Here we investigate for the first time the opto-thermal behavior of SiO₂/Si core/shell microbeads (Si-rex) irradiated with three common Raman laser sources (lambda=532, 633, 785 nm) under real working conditions. We obtained an experimental proof of the critical role played by bead size and aggregation in heat and light management, demonstrating that in the case of strong opto-thermal coupling the temperature can exceed that of the melting points of both core and shell components. In addition, we also show that weakly coupled beads can be utilized as stable substrates for plasmon-free SERS experiments.