We have reported the optical properties of isolated gold nanowires and of nanowire arrays. Despite the advantages gold has to offer as it is less sensitive to oxidation and as an biocompatible metal, it has been scarcely studied than silver or semiconductors nanowires. We have made surface enhanced Raman spectroscopic (SERS) studies on the isolated nanowires and nanowire arrays. Single molecule regime is attained and has been proven with the aid of two dye molecules that are co-deposited. The propagation of surface plasmons in these nanowires and their evolution with the excitation wavelength have been studied. We report a propagation distance of 3.8 µm which is longer than the values previously reported in literature. Nanowire arrays have been investigated with two dyes again to disentangle the various factors contributing to SERS. Polarization studies and the evolution of enhancement in the nanowires with the wavelength have been reported and explained with the aid of simulations obtained by the discrete dipole approximation (DDA). The scanning near field optical microscopy (SNOM) has been done to investigate the local field enhancements on the nanowire arrays. Two different polarizations and two excitation wavelengths have been used. The original idea of the technique includes the use of two illumination modes which serves two purposes. One, to map the regions of enhanced field and the other to study the propagation effects seen on the nanowire.
