TY - JOUR A1 - Foti, Antonino A1 - Barreca, Francesco A1 - Fazio, Enza A1 - D’Andrea, Cristiano A1 - Matteini, Paolo A1 - Maragò, Onofrio Maria A1 - Gucciardi, Pietro Giuseppe T1 - Low cost tips for tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy fabricated by two-step electrochemical etching of 125 µm diameter gold wires JF - Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology PY - 2018/// VL - 9 SP - 2718 EP - 2729 SN - 2190-4286 DO - 10.3762/bjnano.9.254 PB - Beilstein-Institut JA - Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. UR - https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.9.254 KW - amyloid KW - enhanced spectroscopy KW - gold tips KW - plasmonics KW - TERS N2 - Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) has become a well-applied technique for nanospectroscopy, allowing for single molecule sensitivity with sub-nanometer spatial resolution. The demand for efficient, reproducible and cost-effective probes for TERS is increasing. Here we report on a new electrochemical etching protocol to fabricate TERS tips starting from 125 µm diameter gold wires in a reproducible way. The process is reliable (50% of the tips have radius of curvature <35 nm, 66% <80 nm), fast (less than 2 min) and 2.5 times cheaper than the etching of standard 250 µm diameter wires. The TERS performance of the tips is tested on dyes, pigments and biomolecules and enhancement factors higher than 105 are observed. TERS mapping with a spatial resolution of 5 nm is demonstrated. ER -