Arnulf Materny – författare

This book presents and discusses recent developments in the broad field of spectroscopy, providing the reader with an updated overview. The main objective is to introduce them to recent innovations and current trends in spectroscopy applied to molecules and materials. The book also brings together experimentalists and theoreticians to highlight the multidimensional aspects of spectroscopy and discuss the latest issues. Accordingly, it provides insights not only into the general goals of spectroscopy, but also into how the various spectroscopic techniques represent a toolbox that can be used to gain a more detailed understanding of molecular systems and complex chemical problems. Besides technical aspects, basic theoretical interpretations of spectroscopic results are also presented.

The spectroscopy techniques discussed include UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, IR absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and time-resolved spectroscopy. In turn, basic tools like lasers and theoretical modeling approaches are also presented. Lastly, applications for the characterization of fundamental properties of molecules (environmental aspects, biomolecules, pharmaceutical drugs, hazardous molecules, etc.) and materials (nanomaterials, nuclear chemistry materials, biomaterials, etc.) are discussed. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers from various branches of science, and presents new techniques that can be applied to their specific problems.

This book highlights recent advances of spectroscopic techniques based on Raman scattering. Different applications are introduced that serve as examples for the versatile use of Raman techniques. Raman spectroscopy is a marker free technique, which is capable of yielding detailed information about molecular systems in a non-destructive way. This makes it a valuable tool for, e.g., material science or medical research. The access to vibrational energy and dynamics yields fundamental insights into static and dynamical structural properties of molecules being influenced by and influencing their material science or medical research environment. The better understanding of the basic building blocks of materials helps to improve the functionality in various applications. Raman spectroscopy has become a truly interdisciplinary research tool, and the ongoing development of techniques makes it attractive for growing variety of scientific and industrial applications, which will be demonstrated in the book. While the “classical” linear spontaneous Raman spectroscopy is restricted in its applicability due to low signal intensities or the excitation of strong fluorescence background, new techniques have helped to overcome such problems. Examples, presented in the book, are surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), and various associated techniques are used to drastically increase signal intensity, confocal, and tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) allowing for high and even sub-diffraction limited spatial resolutions, coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) avoiding fluorescence background and allowing for time-resolved observations of vibrational dynamics, or hyper- and resonance Raman scattering influencing the scattering based on electronic resonances, etc.