Sir Chandrasekhara Raman won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him." Sir Raman contributed to the fields of optics and acoustics. In 1921 he began investigating optical properties of molecules. He observed a new type of scattering called Raman scattering. In this processes, now known as the Raman effect, light incident on an atom is absorbed by the atom, causing the atom to go to a higher energy state. The atom then emits energy (light) of a different frequency and wavelength as it goes back to a state nearby its original energy state. In this process, the wavelength of the incident light is different from that of the emitted light, and the atom’s final state is different then its initial state. As always, energy is conserved.
