We present the fabrication and characterization of silver island films with SiO 2 coatings for application in plasmonic sensors based on surface-enhanced fluorescence and Raman detection. The emission spectral properties of goat anti-mouse immunoglobulin (IgG) F(ab′) 2 labeled with one or two fluorescein residues were examined on substrates with metallic silver islands. The self-quenching of fluorescein emission was mostly eliminated when this antibody fragment was held 60-90 A from the surface of metallic silver islands, and our preliminary experiments demonstrated an 8-fold emission intensity increase. Similar surfaces were also examined for surface-enhanced Raman analysis of Rhodamine 123, a potential drug for photodynamic therapy.