Raman’s momentous discovery in 1928 that the spectral analysis of the light scattered by matter, illuminated with monochromatic light of frequency ωL, reveals new signatures at (ωL ± ωi) , ωi’s being the internal frequencies of the matter [Nature121, 501 (1928); Indian Journal of Physics 2, 387 (1928)]. In a cable to Nature [122, 349 (1928)], R.W. Wood, the renowned American Physicist, hailed it as a “very beautiful discovery, which resulted from Ramans’s long and patient study of the phenomenon of light scattering” and underscored its significance as “one of the most convincing proofs of the quantum theory of light we have at present time”. After a brief account of Raman’s extraordinary scientific career, I will recount the profound impact made by Raman effect, which launched a new branch of spectroscopy, with illustrative examples from the pre-laser (1928-1960) and from the post-laser (1960-) periods.

General Colloquia, Physics Department, Purdue University

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Anant K. Ramdas (2008), "C.V. Raman and the Impact of Raman Effect in Quantum Physics, Condensed Matter, and Materials Science," https://nanohub.org/resources/5453.

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1. condensed matter
2. history
3. materials science
4. Raman Effect
5. tutorial