Near-field surface-enhanced Raman mapping of phthalazine molecules adsorbed on self-affine colloidal Ag films

Summary form only given. Near-field Raman mapping are difficult experiments due to the extremely small Raman cross-section coupled with exceedingly low optical signal intensity of NSOM. To overcome the problem, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was employed to boost the Raman cross-section by an average enhancement of approximately six-orders of magnitude. Despite the low signal intensity, near-field Raman spectroscopy provides valuable molecule-specific chemical information that is absent from near-field fluorescence spectroscopy. The near-field and far-field SERS spectra of phthalazine adsorbed on Ag are reported.