Abstract:
Historically, light scattering by small particles and related discussions can be
traced back to the era of Leonardo da Vinci. He correctly predicted that the blue
color of the sky was due to light scattered o macroparticles in the atmosphere consisting
of dust, water droplets or ice crystals. Subsequently, scattering of light from
suspensions of transparent
uids was studied by Leroy Tyndall. In 1873 Maxwell
postulated that the scattered radiation carries information about the molecule's
properties and the molecule itself acts as the scattering center. Shortly later, Lord
Rayleigh theoretically analyzed the scattering of light from suspended particles [1].
In 1923, the existence of inelastic or frequency modi ed light scattering was reported
by Smekal through his theoretical work [2]. The experimental veri cation
of this phenomenon was given by C. V. Raman in 1928. For this discovery he was
awarded the Nobel prize. This phenomenon was also independently observed and
proven by Landsberg and Mendelstam [3; 4]. This shift of frequency of scattered
light from molecules is known as Raman e ect [5].
