Fundamentally changing The Spectrum

CV Raman demonstrates his theory of new radiation - the Raman Scattering, to the South India Science Association today in 1928. His discovery would lead to a fundamental change in material analysis in physics.

A Raman Spectrum of Benzene; Source: Wikipedia

The South India Science Association was intrigued - they had heard the announcements which CV Raman had made. He proposed a significant new theory about matter and light - one that could change the way we thought of physics. Yet there were sceptics and detractors - for this was a cutthroat field of experiment and results, and Raman was called here precisely to show off his experiments.

Such was the time on the 16th of March, 1928, that CV Raman was called to prove his ‘new radiation’ theory he had proposed just some weeks ago to the world. A formal and detailed discussion was required, and Raman was about to give them that.

What he explained must have been a complex and difficult topic, full of physics and scientific jargon. But to put it simply, this was the Raman Scattering - or the Raman Effect, as it came to be known. In highly oversimplified terms - this effect occurs when light enters a molecule of any medium, and interacts with the density of the chemical bonds of that medium.

As it interacts, a part of it is transmitted through, a part of it is reflected, but a part of it is also ‘scattered’. These are scattered at different frequencies from that of the oncoming ‘incident’ beam of light. The difference in that frequency is determined by the properties of the material on which the light study is made.

If that was a bit confusing, then it can be simplified by saying that Raman fundamentally altered the way material analysis was done, as his theories came into good use in what was called Raman Spectroscopy. Even complex materials like biological organisms could be studied.

All that would come in the future, as a thousand copies of his theory were sent out to scientists around the world. Thus, as the Science Association left highly impressed, Raman’s legacy was just starting on that fateful day.