Add to ORKGWhen light interacts with a molecule, the most likely reaction is nothing. The incident light is scattered and leaves the molecule at exactly the same wavelength, an effect known as Rayleigh scattering. It exists, how-ever, a one-in-a-million possibility of inelastic scatter-ing: A photon strikes a molecule, or a crystal lattice, and experiences a distinct energy shift. The effect, now known as Raman scattering, was discovered in 1928 [1] by Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman (1888-1970), at that time professor of physics at Calcutta University, India. It forms the basis of Raman spectroscopy. There are two scenarios related to Raman scatter-ing. In the first, a photon strikes a molecule and induces a vibration (or a phonon, in the case of a crys...
