Tunable, Liquid Resistant Tip Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Probes: Toward Label-Free Nano-Resolved Imaging of Biological Systems

Tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) has been established as a powerful, noninvasive technique for chemical identification at the nanoscale. However, difficulties, including the degradation of probes, limit its use in liquid systems. Here TERS probes for studies in aqueous environments have been demonstrated using titanium nitride coatings with an alumina protective layer. The probes show enhancement in signal intensity as high as 380% in liquid measurements, and the probe resonance can be tuned by varying deposition conditions to optimize performance for different laser sources and types of samples. This development of inexpensively produced probes suited for studies in aqueous environments enables its wider use for fields such as biology and biomedicine in which aqueous environments are the norm.