Briefly, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the intensity of the signals from surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy may be increased by using lithium chloride as an enhancer to activate a metallic structure used for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. The increased signal intensity may allow surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy to be utilized to detect individual analytes such as nucleotides, for example in DNA sequencing without requiring a dye or radioactive label.