US Patent 7787118 Apparatus and method for obtaining spectral information

A method of obtaining spectral information comprises initiating at least a first excitation at a first excitation frequency and a second excitation at a second frequency in a surface enhanced sample. The method further comprises varying one of said first and second excitation frequencies, detecting an output signal having an output signal strength and identifying an output signal peak. In addition the method includes correlating the identified output signal with the first and second excitation frequencies to obtain spectral information, in which the surface enhanced sample substrate is configured to enhance the field corresponding to at least one of the first and second excitation, or output fields initiated in this sample.