Reactive ultra-high vacuum sputtering of titanium nitride (TiN) films on silicon substrates produces, under certain growth conditions, a non-continuous thin film with a distribution of holes that has an optical extinction coefficient comparable to that of gold nanostructures. The full Raman spectra, acquired on different points of the TiN thin film and in comparison to bare silicon substrates, show surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) of 40%. TiN, due to the well-known chemical and physical stability in different harsh environments, opens different possibilities in the development of SERS active template. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.