Assembly of a Fiber-optic Probe for Raman Spectrographic Analysis

Raman spectroscopy relies on the Raman effect, the change in wavelength that occurs when a beam of light interacts with a molecule. The small fraction of light that is inelastically scattered by the molecule is the Raman... [ view full abstract ]

Raman spectroscopy relies on the Raman effect, the change in wavelength that occurs when a beam of light interacts with a molecule. The small fraction of light that is inelastically scattered by the molecule is the Raman spectrum. The wavelengths of the scattered light correspond to transitions in rotational and vibrational energy states of bonds within the molecule of interest. Raman scattered light provides unique information about intramolecular structure that can be used to identify specific molecules with minimal manipulation of the sample. This makes Raman spectroscopy an ideal technique for medical diagnostics and chemical analysis of historical artifacts and artwork. Using a fiber-optic probe for Raman spectroscopy eliminates the need for separate incident light delivery and resulting light transmission apparatus; The probe can contain both fibers that deliver the incident light and fibers that transmit the scattered light back to a detector for analysis. In this project, we assembled and calibrated such a probe.