Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (CV Raman) was an Indian scientist and physicist. Born on 7th November 1888, his contribution to the field of science got him a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. He discovered the ‘Raman Effect’, which is a unique form of ‘modified scattering of light’. He was awarded Fellowship of Royal Society of London in 1924, along with a Knights Bachelor in 1930.
Born in a family of Hindu Tamil Brahmins, he was one of the eight siblings. He displayed his higher level of intelligence at a very young age, making him a child prodigy.
He completed his secondary school at 11 and higher secondary school at 13 years of age. By 16, he graduated Physics Bachelor’s degree with honours, as a topper of his class. He had published his first research paper on ‘diffraction of light’, even before his graduation. He then went on to pursue his master’s degree. By the age of 19, he was appointed as Assistant Accountant General in the Indian Finance Service, Calcutta.
The IACS (Indian Association for the Cultivation of Sciences) was the first research institute in India. This institute allowed CV Raman to research extensively about acoustics and optics. This research got him his well-deserved fame among the international scientific community. Eventually, he was offered the position of ‘Palit Professor’ for the Physics Dept. at the University of Calcutta’s Rajabazar Science College.
When he visited Europe for the first time, watching the Mediterranean Sea inspired him. He sought to disprove that Rayleigh-scattered light is the reason why the sea was observed to be blue-colored. In 1923, Compton proved that EM waves could also be described as particles.
When Ramanathan learnt this in 1927, he continued his research with K. S. Krishnan. During his research with his associate K. S. Krishnan, Raman discovered interesting properties of light.
K. S. Krishnan observed that all types of liquids produced polarised fluorescence. This was within the visible spectrum of light. CV Raman noted this, called it modified scattering, and sent the manuscript to ‘Nature’ scientific magazine.
Raman invented a spectrograph for detecting this phenomenon. They placed a violet filter on sunlight and scattered it through a liquid. This produced Rayleigh’s scattered light and a weak light of different colour. They then placed a green filter and noticed green light scattered by the liquid. This was Raman’s scattered light. It was a secondary type of radiation, and more than 60 other liquids displayed the same output. This discovery was one of the initial reliable proofs of the ‘quantum nature of light’.
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