Raman Spectroscopy

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Best of the Week: Complex Organic Molecules, Molecular Analyzers in Oil and Gas
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Best of the Week: Complex Organic Molecules, Molecular Analyzers in Oil and Gas
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Will Wetzel
What is Raman Spectroscopy
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What is Raman Spectroscopy
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Most Influential Articles in Spectroscopy Series

This new feature in Spectroscopy introduces a structured, application-focused series that curates and examines the most influential research papers in molecular and atomic spectroscopy. Each installment presents a focused “Top 10” collection of seminal publications within a specific analytical domain, spanning techniques such as ultraviolet–visible, infrared, Raman, near-infrared, and atomic spectroscopy. Across biomedical, biopharmaceutical, environmental, and forensic applications, the selected papers illustrate how spectroscopic methods are applied to real-world analytical challenges. Emphasis is placed on the integration of spectral data with chemometric approaches to enable robust calibration, accurate prediction, and meaningful interpretation. Together, these curated collections provide practitioners with a concise, application-oriented perspective on impactful developments in spectroscopy. This article brings together the first nine “Top 10” collections in the series, offering a cross-disciplinary view of influential work shaping the field.

Two people wearing protective suits working at crime scene evaluating evidence © Seventyfour -chronicles-stock.adobe.com

Over the past two years, molecular spectroscopy has undergone a marked transformation from a predominantly laboratory-based analytical approach into a field-deployable, data-rich forensic toolkit. This evolution has been driven by three converging trends: (i) advances in vibrational spectroscopic instrumentation (Fourier transform infrared [FT-IR], Raman, and near-infrared [NIR], (ii) the integration of chemometrics and machine learning for extracting actionable information from complex spectra, and (iii) the emergence of portable and miniaturized devices suitable for in situ analysis. The ten papers reviewed here collectively demonstrate how spectroscopy is now addressing some of the most persistent challenges in forensic science—such as time since deposition (TSD), post-mortem interval (PMI), trace evidence discrimination, and rapid drug identification—while maintaining evidentiary integrity through non-destructive analysis. Importantly, these works also reflect a shift toward interpretability, validation, and legal defensibility, which are essential for courtroom acceptance.

In this interview clip, Dmitry Kurouski, an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University, explains the benefit of using near-infrared excitation Raman spectroscopy (NieRS) over high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for forensic dye analysis.