title: On the connection between optical absorption/extinction and SERS enhancements.
abstract: Several aspects of the connection between the absorption/extinction spectra and the enhancement in surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) are analyzed and discussed. It is shown that in many standard situations the spatial distribution of the resonance plays a role for the difference between extinction/absorption and SERS enhancement and that the connection between both can be very indirect and, in many cases, misleading. This clarifies several misconceptions often found in the literature.
authors.affiliation: The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. Eric.LeRu@vuw.ac.nz
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Le Ru
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Galloway
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Etchegoin
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008027:Light; D008956:Models, Chemical; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*