Image dipoles approach to the local field enhancement in nanostructured Ag-Au hybrid devices.

We have investigated the plasmonic enhancement in the radiation field at various nanostructured multilayer devices that may be applied in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. We apply an image dipole method to describe the effect of surface morphology on the field enhancement in a quasistatic limit. In particular, we compare the performance of a nanostructured silver surface and a layered silver-gold hybrid device. It is found that localized surface plasmon states provide a high field enhancement in silver-gold hybrid devices, where symmetry breaking due to surface defects is a supporting factor. These results are compared to those obtained for multishell nanoparticles of spherical symmetry. Calculated enhancement factors are discussed on the background of recent experimental data.