Spectroscopy Lab Assistant

Raman spectroscopy is a technique that allows for chemical characterization of various materials. On a microscope stage, the sample is set in place and irradiated via a laser. Much of the light produced by the laser is scattered off the sample, unchanged by the sample that it hit. This phenomenon is known as Rayleigh scattering. A small percentage of scattered light is changed because of the chemical makeup of the sample and is reflected at a different wavelength than the laser. This is called Raman scattering and is the key to analyzing what the sample is made of at a molecular level. To filter out Rayleigh light scattering, a filter is applied to the reflected light. The Raman light that makes it through the filter is passed through a prism to partition out the different wavelengths, and then those wavelengths are recorded and analyzed.