Micro-Raman spectroscopy applied to polymers
Over the last years micro-Raman spectroscopy has developed to a mature subdiscipline within the field of Raman spectroscopy. Its potential power seems obvious: (a) fluorescence suppression, a major obstacle in many Raman spectra; (b) micro-analysis of samples down to 1 μm lateral resolution yielding molecular information; (c) when using a confocal arrangement with the microscope, in addition to lateral resolution the depth resolution can be enhanced up to the 1 μm level.We applied micro-Raman spectroscopy over the last few years and recently developed a confocal Raman microscopic set-up. Our main application being in the field of polymers, the first thing to worry about is to what happens to the polymer sample when it is irradiated locally with a high laser power density. One should be warned even long before melting in order to avoid morphological changes because, after all, Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool to study polymer morphology in detail. We use the Stokes/Anti-Stokes intensity ratio for determining the sample temperature.