Raman scattering

Uncommon card · No. 167082

In chemistry and physics, Raman scattering or the Raman effect () is the inelastic scattering of photons by matter, meaning that there is both an exchange of energy (change of light frequency) and a change in the light's direction (momentum). Typically this effect involves vibrational energy being gained by a molecule as incident photons from a visible laser are shifted to lower energy. This is called normal Stokes-Raman scattering. Light has a certain probability of being scattered by a material. When photons are scattered, most of them are elastically scattered (Rayleigh scattering), such that the scattered photons have the same energy (frequency, wavelength, and therefore color) as the incident photons, but different direction. Rayleigh scattering usually has an intensity in the range 0.1% to 0.01% relative to that of a radiation source. An even smaller fraction of the scattered photons (about 1 in a million) can be scattered inelastically, with the scattered photons having an energy...

Read on Wikipedia · Image KCVelaga, CC BY-SA 4.0