Raman Spectroscopy

This book highlights recent advances of spectroscopic techniques based on Raman scattering. Different applications are introduced that serve as examples for the versatile use of Raman techniques. Raman spectroscopy is a marker free technique, which is capable of yielding detailed information about molecular systems in a non-destructive way. This makes it a valuable tool for, e.g., material science or medical research. The access to vibrational energy and dynamics yields fundamental insights into static and dynamical structural properties of molecules being influenced by and influencing their material science or medical research environment. The better understanding of the basic building blocks of materials helps to improve the functionality in various applications. Raman spectroscopy has become a truly interdisciplinary research tool, and the ongoing development of techniques makes it attractive for growing variety of scientific and industrial applications, which will be demonstrated in the book. While the “classical” linear spontaneous Raman spectroscopy is restricted in its applicability due to low signal intensities or the excitation of strong fluorescence background, new techniques have helped to overcome such problems. Examples, presented in the book, are surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), and various associated techniques are used to drastically increase signal intensity, confocal, and tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) allowing for high and even sub-diffraction limited spatial resolutions, coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) avoiding fluorescence background and allowing for time-resolved observations of vibrational dynamics, or hyper- and resonance Raman scattering influencing the scattering based on electronic resonances, etc.

Dr. Dheeraj Kumar Singh received his Ph.D. degree in Physics from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India, in 2010. Dr. Singh was subsequently a CSIR-Nehru postdoc at NCL Pune, NRF postdoc in Seoul, South Korea, and finally was granted the renowned Alexander-von-Humboldt (AvH) postdoctoral fellowship for research in Germany. He was also awarded the prestigious international award of a JSPS fellowship, Japan, Dr. DS Kothari postdoctoral fellowship, CSIR-SRF, UGC-Meritorious fellowship (RFSMS), etc. Currently, Dr. Singh is working as Associate Professor at School of Nano Sciences, Central University of Gujarat. His research group is mainly focused on Nanomaterials, frequency- and time-domain spectroscopic techniques, their developments and applications on ionic liquids, biomolecules, functionalized nanomaterials, molecular interactions, materials for renewable-energy production, etc.

Dr. Ashish Kumar Mishra obtained his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 2011. He worked as Postdoctoral Research Associate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA (Jan 2012–Dec 2014), and as INSPIRE Faculty at IISER Bhopal, India (Feb 2015–Sep 2016). Currently, Dr. Mishra is working as Associate Professor in the School of Materials Science and Technology, IIT BHU. His research focus covers the fields of thermal transport study, optoelectronics, and energy applications of 2D materials like graphene, MoS2, MoSe2, etc.

Prof. Arnulf Materny received his Ph.D. in 1992 with distinction under the supervision of pioneer Raman spectroscopist Prof. Wolfgang Kiefer at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Further, he was Postdoc at Caltech, Pasadena, USA. There, he started to work in the field of “femtosecond spectroscopy" in the group of Nobel Laureate Prof. Ahmed H. Zewail. Currently, Prof. Materny is serving as Full Professor of Chemical Physics at Constructor University Bremen, Germany. His research interests cover the development and application offrequency- and time-domain spectroscopic techniques to various molecules and materials with a special focus on linear and nonlinear Raman spectroscopy.