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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Methods. 2012 Apr 4;57(3):272–279. doi: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2012.03.024

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Schematic of nanoparticle-based SERS tags and their characteristic spectra. (A) SERS tags are typically comprised of a plasmonic nanoparticle, Raman tag, surface coating, and targeting entity. (B) The SERS tag excitation is determined largely by the plasmon resonance wavelength of the plasmonic nanoparticle, which can be tuned by altering the composition, size, and shape of the nanoparticle. (C) Gold nanorods 25 nm × 50 nm have a plasmon resonance in the red. (D) The Raman tag is adsorbed to the nanoparticle surface and gives each SERS tag its characteristic SERS spectrum.