Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)

SERS is a spectroscopic technique that combines modern laser spectroscopy with the exciting optical properties (localized surface plasmon resonances, LSPRs) of metallic nanostructures that result in strongly increased Raman signals when molecules are attached to nanometer-sized metallic structures. Such enhancement can be over 12 orders of magnitude with respect to the signal obtained by normal Raman scattering. Because the registered signal is essentially a vibrational spectrum and, therefore, it contains all the information of the molecular system studied, SERS spectroscopy is considered as a powerful analytical technique. Since its discovery in the 1970s, SERS has attracted much interest in various fields of physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine.