Enhancement of Raman scattering by two orders of magnitude using photonic nanojet of a microsphere

The enhancement of Raman signal is observed on excitation through a single microsphere. The dependence of the enhancement ratio (ER) on various parameters viz., numerical aperture (NA) of the microscopic objective lens, pump wavelength, size and refractive index of the microsphere has been studied. The enhancement has been explained due to interaction of the increased field of the photonic nanojet emerging from the single microsphere. The photonic nanojet induced ER of Raman peaks of silicon wafer and cadmium ditelluride is reported here. It is observed for the first time that by suitable selection of the experimental parameters, it is possible to enhance the Raman signal by approximately two orders of magnitude. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.