C.V Raman and Quantum Nature of Light Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, was an Indian physicist, and was the first Indian person to win the Nobel Prize in science for his illustrious 1930 discovery, now commonly known as the “Raman Effect”. Before him Rabindranath Tagore (also Indian) had received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. In 1954, he was honoured with the highest civilian award in India, the Bharat Ratna. It is immensely surprising that Raman used an equipment worth merely Rs.200 to make this discovery. The Raman Effect is now examined with the help of equipment worth almost millions of rupees. Raman helped discover the Quantum Photon Spin in 1932, which helped confirm the Quantum Nature of Light Educated entirely in India, Ramans specialty had been the study of the vibrations and sounds of stringed instruments such as the violin, the Indian veena and tambura, and two uniquely Indian percussion instruments, the tabla and the mridangam. But it was the return trip from London to Bombay aboard the SS Narkunda that would change forever the direction of Ramans future. During the fifteen-day voyage, his restless and probing mind became fascinated with the deep blue color of the Mediterranean. Unable to accept Lord Rayleighs explanation that the color of the sea was just a reflection of the color of the sky, Raman proceeded to outline his thoughts on the matter while still at sea and sent a letter to the editors of the journal Nature when the ship docked in Bombay. Raman Measures the Effect of Light Scattering On 28 February 1928, Raman led experiments at the IACS with collaborators, including K. S. Krishnan [2], on the scattering of light, when he discovered what now is called the Raman effect. It gave further proof of the quantum nature of light (which further shaped the quantum physics of Chakras/Aura). Raman had a complicated professional relationship with K. S. Krishnan, who surprisingly did not share the award, but is mentioned prominently even in the Nobel lecture. Raman spectroscopy came to be based on this phenomenon. Raman and Suri Bhagavantam [1] discovered the quantum photon spin in 1932, which further confirmed the quantum nature of light. Raman and his student, Nagendra Nath, provided the correct theoretical explanation for the acousto-optic effect (light scattering by sound waves), in a series of articles resulting in the celebrated Raman–Nath theory [3]. Other investigations carried out by Raman were experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies (published 1934–1942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary light. Raman was the paternal uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar[8], who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1983) for his discovery of the Chandrasekhar limit in 1931 and for his subsequent work on the nuclear reactions necessary for stellar evolution. ====================================================== References and Further Readings: [1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suri_Bhagavantam [2] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kariamanickam_Srinivasa_Krishnan [3] C. V. Raman, N. S. Nagendra Nath, The diffraction of light by high frequency sound waves. Part I, Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., 1935 4. Scientific Papers of CV Raman, Ed. S Ramaseshan, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore 1988. 5. The Raman papers archive curated by Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India. C.V. Raman and his work 6.Sri Kantha S: The discovery of the Raman Effect and its impact in Biological Sciences. European Spectroscopy News, Aug/Sept. 1988. 7. CV Raman centennial issue. Journal of the Indian Institute of Science 68 (11–12). 1988 [8] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subrahmanyan_Chandrasekhar
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 16:27:45 +0000
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