Self-Organized Nanorod Arrays for Large-Area Surface Enhanced Infrared Absorption.

Highly sensitive Surface Enhanced Infrared Absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy capabilities are demonstrated by exploiting large-area templates (cm2) based on self-organized (SO) nanorod antennas. We engineered highly dense arrays of gold nanorod antennas featuring polarization-sensitive localized plasmon resonances, tunable over a broadband near- and mid-infrared (IR) spectrum, in overlap with the so called 'functional group' window. We demonstrate polarization-sensitive SEIRA activity, homogenous over macroscopic areas and stable in time, by exploiting prototype self-assembled monolayers of IR-active octadecanthiol (ODT) molecules. The strong coupling between the plasmonic excitation and the molecular stretching modes give rise to characteristic Fano resonances in SEIRA. The SO engineering of the active hot-spots in the arrays allows to achieve signal amplitude improved up to the 5.7 %. This figure is competitive to the response of lithographic nanoantennas and is stable when the optical excitation spot varies from the micro- to the macroscale, thus enabling highly sensitive SEIRA spectroscopy on cost-effective nanosensor devices.