Single-molecular surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering as a quantitative probe of local electromagnetic field: The case of strong coupling between plasmonic and excitonic resonance

We investigate electromagnetic coupling between plasmonic and molecular electronic resonances using single-molecular surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) from single silver nanoparticle dimers. When dimers exhibit SERRS activity, their elastic light scattering spectra show two lines, which are temporally closing toward each other. The higher energy line eventually disappears at the time of SERRS quenching. A coupled-oscillator model composed of plasmonic and molecular electronic resonances consistently reproduces the above interesting results by decreasing coupling energy, indicating that SERRS can be a quantitative probe for strong coupling between the two resonances.