A New Generation of Raman Instrumentation

The last decade has seen a significant increase in the utility of Raman measurements in academic, industrial, and governmental laboratories. Applications to polymers, biological systems, process measurements, and many other areas are now possible because of the improvements in the basic spectroscopic instrumentation. Most if not all of these improvements have started with new technology, often obtained from other fields, such as holographic filters, charge-coupled-device detectors, and diode-pumped lasers. With the use of this new technology, the performance of the various Raman instruments today offers unparalleled sensitivity and ease of use. This benefit has opened up many new fields where Raman measurements can be applied, as well as making the use of Raman data as easy as it is in the parallel technique of infrared spectroscopy.