ABSTRACT
It has been 90 years since the discovery of Raman spectroscopy. [Raman, 1928 #1;Raman, 1928 #1]It has grown leaps and bounds and matured over the decades to be considered as a technology to be reckoned with having applications with direct impact to society. Raman spectroscopy in one or more of its avatars has seeped into the various fields of science and technology. Its potential applications were understood immediately as this is a straightforward technique without much need for sample preparation. Spectra can be obtained for almost any material in any state even under extreme conditions. In addition, it can be used as a technique for in situ measurements due to its non-destructive nature. Moreover, Raman microscopy has made it possible to probe very small quantity of materials with high spatial resolution (of the order of micrometres and even sub-micrometre). Integration of plasmonics and Raman microscopy has assisted in the detection and analysis of trace analytes to single-molecule detection. This advantage makes it a lucrative technique in the field of biology and materials science. Enormous technological developments such as laser sources, low-noise multichannel detectors, notch filters, and spectrograph have widened the horizon of Raman spectroscopy, thereby increasing its applications in various fields of science and materials characterization. Specialized optical set-up has enabled researchers to explore non-linear effects of Raman and decode the complex nature of molecules and their interactions.
