Low-concentration chemical sensing using surface-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy*

Measurements of surface enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectra (CARS) of cyclohexane are carried out. Random aggregates of gold nanoparticles for field enhancement were deposited on a glass substrate and were characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Surface enhancement of the CARS signal by gold nanoparticles is observed. This technique can be used to detect low amounts of chemicals with a higher sensitivity compared to the conventional surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The lowest detected concentration of cyclohexane in a thin film of methanol was 1{\%}. However, it was not possible to detect any signal from the same sample of cyclohexane without gold nanoparticles using conventional CARS technique. Therefore, surface enhancement is necessary to achieve higher spectroscopy sensitivity. Further studies of nanostructure-enhanced electrical fields are required to quantitatively understand the observed effects and will be performed in the future.