Introductory Lecture - Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy: new materials, concepts, characterization tools, and applications; SERS signals at the anti Stokes side of the excitation laser in extremely high local optical fields of silver and gold nanoclusters; On the importance of optical forces in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS); Single molecule sensitivity in SERS: importance of junction of adjacent Ag nanoparticles; Vibrational pumping and heating under SERS conditions: fact or myth?; A study of local heating of molecules under Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) conditions using the anti-Stokes/Stokes ratio; General Discussion; In situ surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroelectrochemistry of oxygen species; Surface-enhanced Raman scattering investigations of 4-nitro(pyridine N-oxide) and 4,4-azobis(pyridine N-oxide) adsorbed on silver colloidal nanoparticles; Probing strong optical fields in compact aggregates of silver nanoparticles by SERRS of protoporphyrin IX; Practical control of SERRS enhancement; General Discussion; Surface-enhanced Raman scattering from transition metals with special surface morphology and nanoparticle shape; A TEM and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) investigation of active and inactive silver particles for surface enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy (SERRS); Control of near-infrared optical response of metal nano-structured film on glass substrate for intense Raman scattering; Sculpted substrates for SERS; Electromagnetic modelling of Raman enhancement from nanoscale substrates: a route to estimation of the magnitude of the chemical enhancement mechanism in SERS; Nanoscale imaging of carbon nanotubes using tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy in reflection mode; General Discussion; Re-examining the origins of spectral blinking in single-molecule and single-nanoparticle SERS; A new approach for DNA detection by SERRS; SERS platforms for high density DNA arrays; Surface-enhanced Raman scattering for the rapid discrimination of bacteria; Synthesis and characterization of SERS gene probe for BRCA-1 (breast cancer); SERRS labelled beads for multiplex detection; General Discussion; Concluding Remarks - Surface enhanced Raman scattering
