Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering of Hydrogen Plasma-Treated Few-Layer MoTe₂

Two-dimensional surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates have drawn intense attention due to their excellent spectral reproducibility, high uniformity and perfect anti-interference ability. However, the inferior detection sensitivity and low enhancement have limited the practical application of two-dimensional SERS substrates. To address this issue, we propose that the interaction between the MoTe₂ substrate and the analyte rhodamine 6G molecules could be remarkably enhanced by the introduced p-doping effect and lattice distortion of MoTe₂ via hydrogen plasma treatment. After the treatment, the SERS is greatly improved, the enhancement factor of probe molecules reaches 1.83 × 10⁶ as well as the limit of detection concentration reaches 10⁻¹³ M. This method is anticipated to afford new enhancement probability for other 2D materials, even non-metal oxide semiconductor SERS substrates. (paper)