Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS): Annealing the silver substrate

Silver films, deposited at 120 K in UHV, were slowly warmed to room temperature, Characteristic intensity variations of the inelastic background (I), of disorder induced Raman scattering from phonons (II) and of the SERS signal from adsorbed pyridine have been observed. In the case of (I) and (II) these are explained by the bulk concentration of point defects, in the SERS case by annealing of atomic scale surface roughness.