The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 21, 1991
Filed:
Jul. 27, 1989
Christopher G Milne, Knoxville, TN (US);
Paulus P Shelby, Jr, Knoxville, TN (US);
David L Bailey, Knoxville, TN (US);
Other;
Abstract
A surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) assembly comprises a radiant energy source for directing a beam of radiant energy toward a target microbase. The target microbase includes a substrate, a roughened surface layer contiguously disposed on the substrate, and a sample-adsorption surface layer contiguously disposed on the first roughened layer. The sample-adsorption surface layer is effective to enhance a scattered Raman signal intensity for adsorbates adjacent the sample-adsorption surface layer by a factor of greater than 10.sup.6 times. The sample-adsorption surface includes a plurality of submicron needles having a length of at least 3500 angstroms and a width of at least 500 angstroms. A method for manufacturing the target microbase comprises the steps of contiguously depositing on a substrate the first roughened layer having a deposited thickness of at least 1700 angstroms. A further metallic layer is then contiguously grown on the first roghened layer to form needles modeled as prolate spheroids having a length of at least 3500 angstroms and a width of at least 500 angstroms. In a specific embodiment, the needles are silver microneedles deposited from a vapor with a closed chamber and a vacuum pressure of at least 10.sup.-4 torr and at an evaporation rate from 2 to 20 angstroms per second. The silver microneedles are formed at a deposited thickness of at least 4000 angstroms as determined by a standard quartz thickness monitor.