C. V.

Raman
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman[2] (7 November 1888 21 November 1970), an
Indian physicist born in the former Madras Province in India, carried out groundbreaking work in the field of light scattering which earned him the 1930 Nobel Prize
for Physics. He discovered that when light traverses a transparent material, some of
the deflected light changes in wavelength. This phenomenon, subsequently known
as Raman scattering, results from the Raman effect.[3] In 1954 India honoured him
with its highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna

Early years
C.V.Raman was born to a Tamil Brahmin Iyer family in Thiruvanaikaval, Trichinopoly, (presentday Tiruchirapalli), Madras Presidency Tamil Nadu, in British India to Parvati Amma.

Family
Raman's father initially taught in a school in Thiruvanaikaval, became a lecturer of mathematics
and physics in Mrs. A.V. Narasimha Rao College, Vishakapatnam (then Vishakapatnam) in the
Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and later joined Presidency College in Madras (now Chennai).[1][6]

Early education
At an early age, Raman moved to the city of Visakhapatnam and studied at St. Aloysius AngloIndian High School. Raman passed his matriculation examination at the age of 11 and he passed
his F.A. examination (equivalent to today's Intermediate exam, PUC/PDC and +2) with a
scholarship at the age of 13.
In 1902, Raman joined Presidency College in Madras where his father was a lecturer in
mathematics and physics.[7] In 1904 he passed his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) examination: He stood
first and won the gold medal in physics. In 1907 he gained his Master of Arts (M.A.) degree with
the highest distinctions.[1]

Career
In 1917, Raman resigned from his government service after he was appointed the first Palit
Professor of Physics at the University of Calcutta. At the same time, he continued doing research
at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Calcutta, where he became the
Honorary Secretary. Raman used to refer to this period as the golden era of his career. Many
students gathered around him at the IACS and the University of Calcutta.

C. V. Raman

Energy level diagram showing the states involved in Raman signal

On 28 February 1928, Raman led experiments at the IACS with collaborators, including K. S.
Krishnan, on the scattering of light, when he discovered what now is called the Raman effect. [8] A
detailed account of this period is reported in the biography by G. Venkatraman. [9] It was instantly
clear that this discovery was of huge value. It gave further proof of the quantum nature of light.
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.[10]
Raman spectroscopy came to be based on this phenomenon, and Ernest Rutherford referred to it
in his presidential address to the Royal Society in 1929. Raman was president of the 16th session
of the Indian Science Congress in 1929. He was conferred a knighthood, and medals and
honorary doctorates by various universities. Raman was confident of winning the Nobel Prize in
Physics as well, but was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went to Owen Richardson in 1928
and to Louis de Broglie in 1929. He was so confident of winning the prize in 1930 that he
booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced in November, and would
scan each day's newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing it away if it did not carry the
news.[11] He did eventually win the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work on the scattering of
light and for the discovery of the Raman effect".[12] He was the first Asian and first non-white to
receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences. Before him Rabindranath Tagore (also Indian) had
received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.
Raman and Suri Bhagavantam discovered the quantum photon spin in 1932, which further
confirmed the quantum nature of light.[13]
Raman had association with the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi; he attended the
foundation ceremony of BHU[14] and delivered lectures on "Mathematics" and "Some new paths
in physics" during the lecture series organised at BHU from February 5 to 8, 1916. [15] He also
held the position of permanent visiting professor at BHU.[16]
During his tenure at IISc, he recruited the talented electrical engineering student, G. N.
Ramachandran, who later went on to become a distinguished X-ray crystallographer.

C. V. Raman

Raman also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. He worked out the theory of
transverse vibration of bowed strings, on the basis of superposition velocities. He was also the
first to investigate the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian drums such as the tabla and the
mridangam.[17] He was also interested in the properties of other musical instruments based on
forced vibrations such as the violin. He also investigated the propagation of sound in whispering
galleries.[18] Raman's work on acoustics was an important prelude, both experimentally and
conceptually, to his later work on optics and quantum mechanics.[19]
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 RamanNath theory.[20] Modulators, and switching systems based on this effect have
enabled optical communication components based on laser systems.
Raman was succeeded by Debendra Mohan Bose as the Palit Professor in 1932. In 1933, Raman
left IACS to join Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore as its first Indian director.[21] 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 19341942), and
those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary
light.
He also started the company called Travancore Chemical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (now
known as TCM Limited) which manufactured potassium chlorate for the match industry[22] in
1943 along with Dr. Krishnamurthy. The Company subsequently established four factories in
Southern India. In 1947, he was appointed as the first National Professor by the new government
of Independent India.[23]
In 1948, Raman, through studying the spectroscopic behaviour of crystals, approached in a new
manner fundamental problems of crystal dynamics. He dealt with the structure and properties of
diamond, the structure and optical behaviour of numerous iridescent substances (labradorite,
pearly feldspar, agate, opal, and pearls). Among his other interests were the optics of colloids,
electrical and magnetic anisotropy, and the physiology of human vision.
Raman retired from the Indian Institute of Science in 1948 and established the Raman Research
Institute in Bangalore, Karnataka, a year later. He served as its director and remained active there
until his death in 1970, in Bangalore, at the age of 82.
During a voyage to Europe in 1921, Raman noticed the blue colour of glaciers and the
Mediterranean sea. He was motivated to discover the reason for the blue colour. Raman carried
out experiments regarding the scattering of light by water and transparent blocks of ice which
explained the phenomenon.

Raman employed monochromatic light from a mercury arc lamp which penetrated transparent
material and was allowed to fall on a spectrograph to record its spectrum. He detected lines in the
spectrum which he later called Raman lines. He presented his theory at a meeting of scientists in
Bangalore on 16 March 1928, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

C. V. Raman