Quantum Optics Model of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Arbitrarily Shaped Plasmonic Resonators

Abstract

We present a self-consistent quantum optics approach to calculating the surface enhanced Raman spectrum of molecules coupled to arbitrarily shaped plasmonic systems. Our treatment is intuitive to use and provides fresh analytical insight into the physics of the Raman scattering near metallic surfaces and can be applied to a wide range of geometries including resonators, waveguides, as well as hybrid photonic-plasmonic systems. Our general theory demonstrates that the detected Raman spectrum originates from an interplay between nonlinear light generation and propagation. Counter intuitively, at the nonlinear generation stage, we show that the Stokes (anti-Stokes) signal at the molecule location depends on the plasmonic enhancements, through the local density of photon states (LDOS), at the anti-Stokes (Stokes) frequency. However, when propagating from the vibrating molecule to the far field, the Stokes (anti-Stokes) emission experiences a plasmonic enhancement at the Stokes (anti-Stokes) frequency, as expected. We identify the limits of the commonly known E^4 electric-field rule for Raman signal enhancement near plasmonic surfaces at low pump powers, as well as a different E^8 rule at high pump powers, and we clarify the role of the LDOS. Our theory uses a generalized quantum master equation where the plasmonic system is treated as an environmental bath that is described through the photonic Green function of the medium. Therefore, any electrodynamics related physics, such as quenching and propagation, are self-consistently included in the model. The presented formalism is also capable of spatially describing the full Raman response in a simple analytical way, which is typically not possible using simpler coupled mode theories, even if one adopts a quantum picture.