In part I we looked at ‘what is Raman Spectroscopy’, its advantages and advanced techniques, now we look at the application of this technique in material science. Material science provides a varied and challenging range of samples for which this technique is ideal for studying as it is a very good characterization technique. Confocal Raman offers very good spatial resolution for depth analysis for analyzing polymer films and mapping for testing multi-component systems.

Let’s explore what Raman has to offer the material science community:

Raman spectroscopy is an analytical tool concerned with radiation scattering from a sample such that the structure, properties and environment can be studied based on vibrational transitions within the material. This technique is based on the Raman effect (inelastic scattering of light) discovered in 1928 by Indian Physicist Chandrashekhara Venkata Raman. Raman found that sunlight interacted with molecules to produce a characteristic pattern when a small fraction of the incident radiation is scattered by the molecule and that it differed in wavelength from that of the incident beam. It was also noted that the shifts in the wavelength depended on the chemical structure of the molecules responsible for the scattering.