Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Plasmonic metal nanostructures offer an ideal platform for manipulation of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is caused by light interacting with molecules residing on metal nanostructures, of which the enhancement magnitude can be 108 or even higher depending on the morphology of nanoparticles and the configuration of molecules. In turn, the unique scattering signals of molecules can be used as fingerprints for single-molecule identification, leading to the emergence of advanced spectroscopic techniques for ultrasensitive sensing. Moreover, the coupling of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tips led to the development of tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS), a cutting-edge imaging tool for visualizing single molecules with unprecedented spatial resolution. The applications of nanophotonics-enabled spectroscopy and microscopy have profound implications for a broad range of fields beyond single-molecule imaging and sensing. This Collection welcomes original research that reports advances in nanomaterials characterization, heterogeneous catalysis, and biomolecule detection fueled by nanophotonics-enabled spectroscopy and microscopy.