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Enhancement factor distribution around a single SERS Hot-spot and its relation to Single Molecule detection

E. C. Le Ru·P. G. Etchegoin·M. Meyer
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Abstract

We provide the theoretical framework to understand the phenomenology and statistics of single-molecule (SM) signals arising in Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) under the presence of so-called electromagnetic hot-spots (HS's). We show that most characteristics of the SM-SERS phenomenon can be tracked down to the presence of tail-like (power law) distribution of enhancements and we propose a specific model for it. We analyze, in the light of this, the phenomenology of SM-SERS and show how the different experimental manifestations of the effect reported in the literature can be analyzed and understood under a unified ``universal'' framework with a minimum set of parameters.

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E. C. Le Ru, P. G. Etchegoin, M. Meyer. 2006-08-14. Enhancement factor distribution around a single SERS Hot-spot and its relation to Single Molecule detection. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2390694

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