The asymmetric broadening of the stretching vibration in Surface enhanced Raman scattering of CO adsorbed on cryocondensed copper films can be explained by considering dipole-dipole interaction of the molecules and clastic scattering at structures of atomic roughness. Calculated line shapes Lire in good agreement with the experiment. including the low wavenumber Shoulder. The variation of the line shape with the CO exposure can be modelled by in increased vibronic polarizability which is consistent with the increase of the dynamical dipole moment for the chemisorbed molecule due to back donation into the CO 2pi orbital. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.