Giant Raman scattering by pyridine and CN− adsorbed on silver

The giant RS by pyridine and CN^? on Ag is accompanied by a strong RS continuum which is attributed to inelastic light scattering by charge carrier-excitations. The enhanced RS by the adsorbed molecules and by the charge carrier-excitations are attributed to surface roughness enhanced EM fields at the metal surface resulting from the excitation of transverse collective electron-excitations and surface-EM modes, and to surface roughness-induced radiative-excitation and radiative-recombination of particle-hole pairs.