Market Profiles

One of the newest and fastest-growing subsegments of the molecular spectroscopy market is terahertz spectroscopy. It makes use of a previously underused segment of the electromagnetic spectrum and is already seeing demand from a variety of industries. Although it remains unclear which industries will become major adopters of the technology, it looks certain that terahertz spectroscopy will develop into a major segment of the molecular spectroscopy market.

Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is a relatively new and advanced subsegment of the fluorescence spectroscopy market. FCS can provide a wealth of very specific physiochemical information that is most useful to those in biology and related sectors.

UV-vis spectroscopy, which includes photometers and turbidimeters, provides a simple method for addressing a wide range of basic water analysis parameters that are crucial to environmental analysis. The environmental market for UV and visible spectroscopy techniques accounts for close to 30% of the entire laboratory and portable UV?vis spectroscopy market.

Ellipsometry is a spectroscopic technique used to measure dielectric properties of thin films. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), which is the largest subset of the technique, is a very useful research tool, and is a popular analytical tool in many fast-growing industries. The market for SE is currently in the midst of a very strong upswing in demand.

Major technological advances have allowed the market for handheld and portable Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy to develop almost overnight. Demand from a variety of industries and applications is continuing to take shape, and many major vendors in the market have taken note and made sure to grab themselves a major stake in this fast growing area.

A number of analytical methods make use of the X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Of these, the technique in widest use is energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF).

Fourier-transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy continues to be a rapidly growing process analytical technique, particularly in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry. The technique offers a number of advantages for online applications, and most of the major NIR instrument vendors now compete in this segment of the market.

Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) is a very powerful analytical technique that combines two dimensions of separation techniques. It is finding a rapidly growing demand from water analysis applications due to the increasing need to monitor water for new potential contaminants at very low levels. Despite very strong continued growth in the area, competition is already fairly concentrated among the top several competitors.

One of the fastest growing new areas of demand for Raman spectroscopy is in the security market. Technological improvements have helped to unlock the large potential of the technique for security applications. There has been a rash of acquisitions in the market that have completely reshaped the competitive landscape over the last few years, which is typical of such dynamic markets.

One of the most critical components to the performance of any high-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system is the NMR probe. The probe is where all of the action happens within an NMR system, and they are offered in a wide variety of sizes and configurations for different applications. The aftermarket for NMR probes, alone, is quite a sizeable market, and will continue to be a major driver of the market.

X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) provides sensitive analysis of the atomic composition of samples. The technique is particularly well-suited for analyzing the elemental range from sodium to uranium, which covers the majority of the metallic elements.

Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy and ICP–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) provide an interesting set of similarities and contrasts.

Demand for portable and handheld near infrared (NIR) instruments has exploded over the past several years, mirroring trends in other handheld spectroscopy techniques.

Fluorescence spectroscopy is useful for the analysis of a broad range of organic compounds. A subset of fluorescence spectroscopy is lifetime fluorescence, within which a subsubset is frequency-domain lifetime fluorescence.

Fourier transform–infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy has become a very popular technique because of its ability to analyze such a broad range of chemicals and compounds.

X-ray wavelengths correspond to both atomic energy levels and interatomic spacings, enabling X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) in laboratories.

Raman spectroscopy has rapidly become an established analytical technique in the lab, in the field, and online. Its inherent advantages make it very well suited for industrial applications, which has led to the rise of significant demand from a broad range of industries. Strong potential growth for process Raman remains, even after the impact of the recent recession.

Until recently, triple-quadrupole gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) has been a relatively obscure segment of the GC–MS market. However, it is now exploding into a major market segment. New entrants and recent instrument introductions indicate that there has been a significant unmet need in the GC–MS market for such capabilities.

Raman spectroscopy in general, and specifically, handheld and portable Raman, has developed very rapidly over the past decade due to technological developments that have unleashed the advantages of the technique. Portable/handheld Raman spectroscopy has gone from an insignificant market to the largest portable molecular spectroscopy technique in just a few years.

Somewhat unique among molecular spectroscopy techniques, the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for industrial process analysis is driven primarily by the petroleum industry.

One of the last frontiers of molecular spectroscopy is in the terahertz region, for which instrumentation has only been developed within the past decade.

The ultimate in atomic spectroscopy performance, magnetic sector inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometery (ICP-MS) instruments are used for the most demanding analyses. There is significant demand across several industries, despite the fact that the global market for such instrumentation is a niche area.

Fourier transform–near infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy is one of a number of molecular spectroscopy techniques that are already used for online process analysis across a number of industries, but are still seeing significant growth in demand. FT-NIR technology has a number of inherent advantages for online analysis.

A small niche market within fluorescence spectroscopy is portable fluorometers. Primary applications are in the agricultural industry, but there is considerable potential elsewhere. The market landscape is small and fragmented, with no dominant leader, and significant potential for growth.

Fourier transform (FT)–Raman spectroscopy is one of two general categories of Raman spectroscopy. Its adoption helped make Raman spectroscopy a commercially viable analytical technique, and it is still widely used. Although it has become somewhat of a niche technique, demand continues to grow.

X-ray diffractometry (XRD) is an X-ray–based method for determining the crystal structure of a material. Because X-ray wavelengths are of roughly the same size as the interatomic spacings of a crystal, significant diffraction of the waves occurs.

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy are very complementary methods. The strongest demand tends to come from applications that require analytical information from a potentially broad range of compounds and functional groups. The global market for combined Raman and FT-IR accounts for a small but growing percentage of both the broader IR and Raman spectroscopy markets.

An oft-overlooked segment of the mass spectrometry market is time-of-flight LC–MS. Although LC-TOF does not possess the capabilities of more expensive mass spectrometry techniques, it fills an important price-to-performance segment of the market. The trickling down of technology and heavy competition are contributing to a strong market outlook for the area.

Microvolume spectroscopy is a very new segment of the molecular spectroscopy market, but it already accounts for about 10% of the combined UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy markets.

Lifetime fluorescence is a subset of fluorescence spectroscopy in which the time between excitation and relaxation is measured, rather than just the intensity of the emitted energy. The technique is used primarily in biological applications, but has a number of other uses as well. Lifetime fluorescence is a well-established niche market.