ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the reader with a brief theoretical overview of Raman and resonance Raman scattering, especially with regard to the type of useful structural information available from each approach and the differences between them. It describes several of the new experimental approaches, and emphasizes their potential utility in biomedical applications. The chapter illustrates, via reference to a specific application (biomembrane structure), the various tactics that have been employed to extract information of potential interest to biomedical researchers, who will perhaps be thus motivated to look more deeply into this technology. The development of resonance Raman scattering as an important biophysical tool evolved under conditions precisely to the contrary; so that in a resonance Raman experiment the excitation frequency lies within the bandwidth of an electronic molecular absorption band. The level of spectral data interpretation for biomolecules is generally much less sophisticated than that applied to small molecules in the gas phase.
