The Role of Atomic Scale Roughness in Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering

Numerous studies in the past several years have shown that the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect depends critically on the existence of surface roughness. However, the size of the roughness features which are important has remained controversial. Theoretical models based on atomic scale roughness ('the adatom model') have been put forth, along with experimental observations which are interpreted as supporting this roughness scale.