Can surface-enhanced Raman scattering serve as a channel for strong optical pumping?

The surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectra of a number of dye and colorless molecules adsorbed on deposited coloidal silver films were systematically studied as a function of power and position using a Raman microscope. The anti-Stokes portions of the spectra of the dyes reproducibly show line intensities much greater than what is expected on the basis of the equilibrium population of the excited vibrational states, even at the lowest incident light intensities used. This behavior was observed previously and attributed to optical pumping of vibrationally excited states of the molecules by unusually intense surface-enhanced Raman transitions, [Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 2444 (1996)] suggesting either uncommonly large Raman cross-sections or very intense local field strengths exceeding those encountered in the most powerful currently available lasers. Based on this work, however, we ascribe the apparently large anti-Stokes intensities primarily to a difference in the Stokes and anti-Stokes Raman cross-sections resulting from resonance or pre-resonance Raman processes in the adsorbate–surface complex rather than to strongly nonequilibrium populations in the molecular vibrational states. Finally, we observed no significant inhomogeneity in the Raman enhancement in the images of the deposited silver coloid samples down to spatial resolutions of ∼1 μm.