In 1977, Richard Van Duyne discovered Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy: the observation that the Raman spectrum of molecules residing close to nanostructured silver could be increased in intensity a million-fold from what current understanding at that time could account for: a shockingly large factor. I had the good and serendipitous fortune to be at an ACS meeting in 1977 where Van Duyne reported his discovery, likely for the first time. Because I had, mere weeks before, been struggling to understand the reflection spectra of rough copper and silver, a project that led me rather circuitously to surface plasmons, I became convinced, while listening to Rick’s lecture, that the enhanced Raman he described was brought about by some sort of coupling between the molecule’s vibrations and the metal nanostructure’s plasmons. When I returned to Toronto, I immediately wrote a brief article which appeared in the Journal of Chemical Physics in 1978, reporting my hunch. Prior to the discovery or SERS plasmons were already well understood, but viewed to be a rather esoteric phenomenon with few followers and fewer useful consequences. SERS changed all of that, so that by 2018 Plasmonics has become a dynamic and highly populated field of inquiry. And it was Raman – or at least an amplified version thereof – that previously was used primarily to record vibrational spectra, that was responsible.<br/>

<b>Award Address</b> (E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy sponsored by the ACS Division of Physical Chemistry). Raman origins of plasmonics

2019 Spring National Meeting

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Award Address (E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy sponsored by the ACS Division of Physical Chemistry). Raman origins of plasmonics