Mercury discharge source Raman spectroscopy

Sources that emit a few discrete lines find wide use in atomic absorption spectroscopy, atomic and molecular fluorescence spectroscopy, artd Raman spectroscopy (refractomeiry and polarimciry also u.se line sources). The familiar mercury and sodium vapor lamps provide a relatively few sharp lines in the ultraviolet and visible regions and are used in several spectroscopic instruments. I loilow-cathodc lamps and clectrodelcss discharge lamps are the most important line sourcc.s for atomic absorption and fluorescence methods. Discussion of such sources is deferred to Section 9H- . 

At one time, the progress in the field of Raman spectroscopy of polymers was heavily dependent upon laser technology. The advent of accessible laser sources made it possible to replace the mercury-discharge lamp as an excitation source. Other developments, such as photomultipliers, computerization, or, most recently, sensitive array detectors made a tremendous impact on applications of this method in polymer analysis. 

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