History of Raman Spectroscopy

• 1922 (93 years ago): Indian physicist CV Raman does first work on what later would culminate towards discovery of the Raman Effect.
• 1923 (92 years ago): The physical effect that would later come to be called "Raman Effect" is predicted theoretically by Austrian physicist A Smekal
• 1928 (87 years ago): The effect is experimentally discovered by CV Raman and KS Krishnan of India, and practically simultaneously by the Soviet physicists G Landsberg and L Mandelstam.
• 1930 (85 years ago): CV Raman receives Nobel price for this discovery
• 1930s: Work to exploit the Raman effect for analytical purposes is done, notably by G Placzek of Czechoslovakia. Raman spectroscopy was used to provide the first catalog of molecular vibrational frequencies. However, applicability was limited by the inavailability of high-power, monochromatic light sources
• 1960: The first laser is built by US engineer TH Maiman.
• 1960s (around 50 years ago): With the advent of the laser as a suitable source of monochromatic light, Raman spectroscopy is reintroduced and becomes a common analytical tool.
• 1970 (45 years ago): CV Raman dies
• 1970s-1990s: Raman spectroscopy finds many many applications, is developed in many variants, and becomes widely used in various science disciplines such as medical and biological research, material science and forensics
• 1998 (17 years ago): The Raman effect is designated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society "in recognition of its significance as a tool for analyzing the composition of liquids, gases, and solids"

Thanks to Erich Oysteen Maraite