Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is known to be a powerful spectroscopic tool enabling trace-level detection of organic molecules on a plasmonic surface in aqueous systems without spectral interference of water, owing to the insensitivity of SERS to liquid water. SERS detection of interfacial water has been limited in some specific conditions, and the underlying mechanism about such an anomaly is poorly understood. In this talk, we will present low-frequency SERS observation of fast Debye relaxation of water, hydrogen-bond vibrations, and intramolecular OH vibrations in the wide frequency range covering from the terahertz (THz) region to the mid-infrared (MIR) region, which demonstrates that breaking of hydrogen bond networks of water is essential to make liquid water detectable in SERS.
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