eli5: where does the electric field come from in TERS?

Question

TERS = tip enhanced raman scattering

so apparently my teacher have like a rod with gold tip and apparently it generate a electric field?? or something when he run a TERS??

someone, please explain how does the electricity works on that, I learn it in class and still don’t understand it.

In: 1

Answer 1

I think the key takeaway is that the metal tip focuses the light, so that only the part of the sample that’s right in front of the tip is being excited. The metal tip doesn’t spontaneously create an electric field and doesn’t spontaneously emit light, if that’s what you’re thinking. An independent light source is still needed.

If you want a complete mathematical description of how the light interacts with the metal tip in the exact way that it does, that’s beyond my paygrade.