2D Patterned Plasmonic Substrates for Reproducible Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

This thesis investigates how nanoscale metal surfaces affect the reliability of Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, a technique used to detect small amounts of analytes. It develops an optimised single-step laser fabrication method to create rippled nanostructures directly on copper surfaces. The resulting substrates enable detection of methylene blue at concentrations as low as 10 µM and produce highly consistent measurements, with signal variation below 15% across large areas. Analysis of more than 2,000 Raman spectra confirms the reproducibility of the approach. The findings provide a scalable and cost-effective route for developing reliable chemical and biological sensing platforms.