Atomic Point Contact Considerably Enhances Raman Scattering at Nanoscale Today, nanofabrication of electronic systems has reached a 1 nm scale (10 − 9 m). The quick development of nanotechnology and nanoscience currently needs atomic-scale optical spectroscopy to define atomistic structures that will influence the functions and properties of the electronic devices. (a) Illustration of the experiment. (b) Scanning electron micrograph of an Ag tip (top) and scanning tunneling microscopy image of the Si(111)-7×7 surface. (c) Atomic point contact Raman spectra. Image Credit: National Institutes of Natural Sciences. The international research team, led by Takashi Kumagai from the Institute for Molecular Science, observed a massive improvement of Raman scattering facilitated by the development of an atomic point contact between a Si(111)-7×7 reconstructed surface and a plasmonic silver tip. This was realized using advanced low-temperature tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy that helps perform atomic-scale vibrational spectroscopy.