Scalable fabrication of the graphitic substrates for graphene-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

We propose direct synthesis of ultra-thin graphitic films on a dielectric substrate using sacrificial Ni catalyst layer, which significantly increases the crystallinity of the photoresist pyrolyzed at the temperature of 800 °C and above. A considerable amount of multilayer graphene in the photoresist film pyrolyzed in the presence of the Ni catalyst gives rise to an enhancement of the Raman signal of dye Sudan III molecules deposited on the substrate. We demonstrate comparable enhancement of the Raman signal from Sudan III molecules deposited on the fabricated graphitic substrate and those deposited on graphene, which was conventionally transferred to the silica substrate.