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Abstract
The concept of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is reviewed. The currently held position within the spectroscopic community is that the enormous SERS enhancement effect, sometimes as much as fourteen orders of magnitude, can be partially related to surface roughness but mostly to surface plasmons (polaritons). The plasmon states are absent in electrical insulators, thus precluding the applicability of the powerful SERS technique in analysing the surface conditions of these materials. This communication describes a technique for extending the SERS process to materials that have little or no intrinsic electrical conductivity.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Dr. Robert Hanrahan of the United States Department of Energy, Dr. Louis Powell of Y-12, National Security Complex and Dr. Wigbert Siekhaus of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as well as Drs. James L. Smith and Chris Taylor of LANL for discussions and insight. Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated for the United States Department of Energy by LANS LLC under NNSA contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25396.