Raman Instrumentation for Confocal Raman Microscopy

Raman spectroscopy is a weak scattering technique in which typically less than one in a million excitation photons give rise to a single Raman photon. The situation is even more difficult in confocal Raman microscopy, as the detection volume is reduced by the small pinhole and thousands of spectra must be collected in a short period of time. Therefore, careful design of the excitation and detection optics as well as the appropriate choice of spectrometer and detector is important for successful experiments. As detectors and instrumentation in this field continue to quickly evolve, a snapshot of state-of-the-art Raman equipment and instrumentation will be provided.