Enhancement of Raman scattering of a gaseous medium near the surface of a silver holographic grating

The Letter demonstrates a possibility to enhance the Raman scattering of a gaseous medium due to an enhanced electromagnetic field caused by the excitation of propagating surface plasmon polaritons (PSPPs) on a silver holographic grating. Efficiency of collinear and noncollinear schemes of PSPP excitation on a metal-gaseous medium interface was studied. When using a collinear scheme, we registered an eightfold enhancement of the Raman scattering of atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen, where the average gain near the PSPP-active surface was similar to 4 x 10(3). (C) 2017 Optical Society of America