Enhancement of Raman signal for nanoconfined samples

Previously, studies on confined fluids in parallel confinement geometries were limited to perturbation/relaxation force measurements. Recent advances in our research group have allowed the probing of these systems by spectroscopic means. One major hurdle in these experiments is the fact that a vibrational spectrum is very hard to collect from a confined fluid, due to very thin (few molecules) sample. To this end we have developed a novel experimental platform by which introduce a smooth surface with the ability to enhance a Raman signal - without perturbing the film structure. The goal of this work is to enhance the signal from the confined fluid to the point where Raman signals can be collected from a film only a few nm thick in a short period of time with sufficient signal as compared to background.