Experimental evidence of extremely high spatial resolution of tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) has been recently demonstrated. Here, we present a full quantum chemical description (at the density functional level of theory) of the non-resonant chemical effects on the Raman spectrum of an adenine molecule mapped by a tip, modeled as a single silver atom or a small silver cluster. We show pronounced changes in the Raman pattern and its intensities depending on the conformation of the nanoparticle-substrate system, concluding that the spatial resolution of the chemical contribution of TERS can be in the sub-nm range.

A new approach for the calculation of resonance Raman spectra is presented. The new method is based on dynamic polarizabilities from real-time time-dependent density functional theory, and its estimations are compared to two established techniques for the prediction of resonance Raman spectra. These established methods either use dynamic polarizabilities from linear-response time-dependent density functional theory or employ excited-state gradients. The three different ways to calculate resonance Raman spectra are investigated using the example of ortho-nitrophenol. The three methods give very similar results, respectively, for the four different exchange-correlation functionals applied. Thus, the new approach is validated for the calculation of resonance Raman intensities and advantages as well as disadvantages are discussed.