Abstract
WHEN a transparent substance is illuminated, a small fraction of the light is always scattered at right angles to the direction of the beam without undergoing a change in frequency, a phenomenon which is known as ‘Rayleigh scattering’. In 1928, Sir C. V. Raman, who at the time was investigating the scattering of light by liquids, actually photographed the spectrum of the scattered light for benzene and similar substances when illuminated with a beam of monochromatic light, and found a number of new lines of low intensity, in addition to scattered light of unchanged wave-length (which represented normal Rayleigh scattering by the liquid). These new lines in the spectrum differed in frequency from the monochromatic light used by amounts which were characteristic of the scattering liquid, but were independent of the actual frequency used to excite them. This phenomenon is known as the ‘Raman effect’, and the new lines are termed the Raman lines of the substance, which we now know may be either a solid, a liquid, or a gas.
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References
Phys. Rev., 36, 537; 1930.
NATURE, 130, 1002, Dec. 31, 1932.
Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 127, 279; 1930.
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Raman Spectra and Chemistry. Nature 131, 263–265 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131263a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131263a0