Extensive study of nanomaterial chemical and optical properties has enabled their integration into a variety of applications. However, less thoroughly investigated are the heat generation and dissipation processes of nanomaterials following optical excitation. These phenomena are of immense importance as thermal energy can distort a material’s structure, which has profound...
The work presented in this dissertation is centered on experimental efforts to maximize the sensitivity of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) toward their application in ultrasensitive nanoscale chemical analysis. The work focuses on fundamental studies of the plasmonic properties of silver nanostructures, and how those properties...