Raman Spectroscopy of Crystals

Raman spectroscopy is now finding wide-ranging application in pure and applied science. It can be used for the characterization of the atomic structure of solids because Raman scattering depends on the polarisation and direction of the incident light, the crystal symmetry and orientation of the solid sample, and the direction and polarisation of the scattered light. Raman spectroscopy can play a significant role in the study of crystal phase transformations, and it could involve order-disorder phenomena, polymorphs, chemical diffusion, and solid-solution shifts. One can study crystals in situ in extreme conditions—under high pressure, at high temperatures or both simultaneously, at low temperatures, or in electric or magnetic fields and extract thermodynamic data from the variations in the Raman bands with varying pressure-temperature-field conditions. Other aspects that merit attention are the possibility of analyzing nanocrystals, crystalline microinclusions under the surface, organic crystals and many others.