Photochemically patterned metal nanoparticle Strontium Barium Niobate surfaces with tunable wettability, enhanced Raman scattering and fluorescence emission

Photochemically patterned metal nanoparticle Strontium Barium Niobate (SBN) surfaces are shown to exhibit tunable surface wettability which depends on the UV photodeposition time and the type of deposited metal nanoparticle, namely silver or gold. SBN surfaces patterned with silver nanoparticles undergo a
transition from hydrophilic to hydrophobic state with increasing hotodeposition time. The water contact angle of gold nanoparticle patterned SBN surfaces also increases but the gold decorated surfaces do not become hydrophobic. Taking advantage of plasmonic properties of noble metal nanoparticles, we further
demonstrate enhanced Raman scattering and fluorescence emission of a probe molecule from the metal nanoparticle SBN surfaces. Further, ferroelectric lithography enables the creation of stable oppositely polarized ferroelectric domains, at the micro- scale, giving rise to spatially distinct metal particle deposition patterns and corresponding Raman responses. The results clearly demonstrate that metallic nanoparticle/ SBN surfaces suitable for enhanced chemical sensing can be designed using ferroelectric lithography and
could have implications for realization of microfluidic SERS sensors.