Surface Patterning with SERS-Active Nanoparticle Aggregates for Safeguards Application

In this paper, we describe our efforts to use spectroscopic signatures of materials to develop a passive tagging and sealing technology for safeguards applications. With spectroscopic responses defined by SANAs (SERS-Active Nanoparticle Aggregates; SERS: Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering), we offer a potential robust, in-field verifiable barcoding capability with inexpensive materials. At INMM 2010, [1] we showed SANA materials having improved robustness and spectral quality over older but similar materials, [2] and we demonstrated how those materials might be combined with tags under development at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The SANA materials represent a component technology that might be implemented in a number of ways. Here, we will focus on our recent NGSI (Next Generation Safeguards Initiative) application development work involving small area surface deposition. With commercially available instrumentation, we are able to ‘write’ barcodes defined by both spatial properties and spectral responses into square millimeter areas for later readback using Raman mapping. We will describe our results with emphasis on integration of this technology into safeguards application