High performance Raman spectroscopy with simple optical components

Abstract

Several simple experimental setups for the observation of Raman scattering in liquids and gases are described. Typically these setups do not involve more than a small (portable) CCD-based spectrometer (without scanning), two lenses, and a portable laser. A few extensions include an inexpensive beam-splitter and a color filter. We avoid the use of notch filters in all of the setups. These systems represent some of the simplest but state-of-the-art Raman spectrometers for teaching/demonstration purposes and produce high quality data in a variety of situations; some of them traditionally considered challenging (for example, the simultaneous detection of Stokes/anti-Stokes spectra or Raman scattering from gases). We show examples of data obtained with these setups and highlight their value for understanding Raman spectroscopy. We also provide an intuitive and nonmathematical introduction to Raman spectroscopy to motivate the experimental findings.