PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF A FOURIER-TRANSFORM RAMAN MICROPROBE

Improvements to an existing Fourier transform Raman microprobe are des cribed which include the optimization of the spectrometer for use in t he near-IR region, the laser input optics in the microscope and optics employed to couple the microscope to the spectrometer. Several exampl es are presented which demonstrate the effect of these improvements on the microprobe's spatial resolution, Rayleigh rejection and ability t o analyze weak Raman scattering materials with moderate excitation pow ers. Polarized data from a single crystal and data from the use of hol ographic notch filters are also presented. Future improvements to the system are also discussed.