C. V. Raman ; THE GREAT INDIAN SCIENTIST

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

Born 7 November 1888, Tiruchirappalli,

Died 21 November 1970 (aged 82)

Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Nationality Indian

Fields Physics

Institutions Indian Finance Department

University of Calcutta

Indian Association for the Cultivation of

Science

Indian Institute of Science

Central College, Bangalore University

Raman Research Institute

Alma mater University of Madras

Doctoral

studentsG. N. Ramachandran

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai

Known for Raman effect

Notable awards Knight Bachelor (1929)

Hughes Medal (1930)

Nobel Prize in Physics (1930)

Bharat Ratna (1954)

Lenin Peace Prize (1957)

Fellow of the Royal Society [2]

Spouse Lokasundari Ammal (1907–1970)

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman,  (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was

an Indian physicist whose ground breaking work in the field of light scattering earned him the

1930 Nobel Prize for Physics. He discovered that, when light traverses a transparent

material, some of the deflected light changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now

called Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman effect. In 1954, he was honoured

with the highest civilian award in India, the Bharat Ratna.

 

Early years[

Venkata Raman was born in Thiruvanaikaval, Trichinopoly, present-day

Tiruchirapalli, Madras Presidency, in British India to Parvati Amma he was self educated in

the field of science.

Ancestors

Raman's maternal grandfather, Saptarshi Sastri, was a Sanskrit scholar, who was learned

in navya nyaya (modern logic). Raman's father initially taught in a local school in

Thiruvanaikaval and later became a lecturer of mathematics and physics in Mrs. A.V.

Narasimha Rao College, Vishakapatnam (then Vizagapatnam) in the Indian state of Andhra

Pradesh, and later joined Presidency College in Madras.[6]

Early years

At an early age, Raman moved to the city of Visakhapatnam, and studied in St. Aloysius

Anglo-Indian High School. Raman passed his matriculation examination at the age of 11 and

he passed his F.A. examination (equivalent to today's Intermediate exam) with a scholarship

at the age of 13.

In 1902, Raman joined Presidency College in Madras where his father had become a

lecturer in mathematics and physics.] In 1904 he passed his  BA examination - he stood first

and won the gold medal in physics. In 1907 he gained his MA degree with the highest

distinctions.

Career

In 1917, Raman resigned from his government service after he was appointed the first Palit

Professor of Physics at the University of Calcutta. At the same time, he continued doing

research at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Calcutta, where he

became the Honorary Secretary. Raman used to refer to this period as the golden era of his

career. Many students gathered around him at the IACS and the University of Calcutta.

Energy level diagram showing the states involved in Raman signal

On 28 February 1928, Raman led experiments at the IACS with collaborators, including K. S.

Krishnan, on the scattering of light, when he discovered what now is called the Raman

effect. A detailed account of this period is reported in the biography by G. Venkatraman. It

was instantly clear that this discovery was of huge value. It gave further proof of the quantum

nature of light. Raman had a complicated professional relationship with K. S. Krishnan, who

surprisingly did not share the award, but is mentioned prominently even in the Nobel lecture.

Raman spectroscopy came to be based on this phenomenon, and Ernest Rutherford referred

to it in his presidential address to the Royal Society in 1929. Raman was president of the

16th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1929. He was conferred a knighthood, and

medals and honorary doctorates by various universities. Raman was confident of winning the

Nobel Prize in Physics as well, but was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went to Owen

Richardson in 1928 and to Louis de Broglie in 1929. He was so confident of winning the

prize in 1930 that he booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced

in November, and would scan each day's newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing

it away if it did not carry the news. He did eventually win the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics "for

his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect". He was the first

Asian and first non-white to receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences. Before

him Rabindranath Tagore(also Indian) had received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

Raman and Suri Bhagavantam discovered the quantum photon spin in 1932, which further

confirmed the quantum nature of light.

During his tenure at IISc, he recruited the then talented electrical engineering student, G. N.

Ramachandran, who later was a distinguished X-ray crystallographer.

Raman also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. He worked out the theory

of transverse vibration of bowed strings, on the basis of superposition velocities. He was also

the first to investigate the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian drums such as

the tabla and the mridangam.

Raman and his student, Nagendra Nath, provided the correct theoretical explanation for

the acousto-optic effect (light scattering by sound waves), in a series of articles resulting in

the celebrated Raman–Nath theory. Modulators, and switching systems based on this effect

have enabled optical communication components based on laser systems.

Raman was succeeded by Debendra Mohan Bose as the Palit Professor in 1932. In 1933,

Raman left IACS to join Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore as its first Indian

director. Other investigations carried out by Raman were experimental and theoretical

studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies

(published 1934–1942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in

crystals exposed to ordinary light.

He also started a company called Travancore Chemical and Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (now

known as TCM Limited) which manufactured potassium chlorate for the match industry in

1943 along with Dr. Krishnamurthy. The Company subsequently established four factories in

Southern India. In 1947, he was appointed as the first National Professor by the new

government of Independent India.

In 1948, Raman, through studying the spectroscopic behaviour of crystals, approached in a

new manner fundamental problems of crystal dynamics. He dealt with the structure and

properties of diamond, the structure and optical behaviour of

numerous iridescent substances (labradorite, pearly feldspar, agate, opal, and pearls).

Among his other interests were the optics of colloids, electrical and magnetic anisotropy, and

the physiology of human vision.

Personal life[edit]

He was married on 6 May 1907 to Lokasundari Ammal (1892–1980). They had two sons,

Chandrasekhar and Radhakrishnan.

On his religious views, he was an agnostic.

Raman retired from the Indian Institute of Science in 1948 and established the Raman

Research Institute in Bangalore, Karnataka, a year later. He served as its director and

remained active there until his death in 1970, in Bangalore, at the age of 82.

Raman was the paternal uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who later won the Nobel

Prize in Physics (1983) for his discovery of the Chandrasekhar limit in 1931 and for his

subsequent work on the nuclear reactions necessary for stellar evolution.

Achievements[edit]

During a voyage to Europe in 1921, Raman noticed the blue colour of glaciers and

the Mediterranean sea. He was motivated to discover the reason for the blue colour. Raman

carried out experiments regarding the scattering of light by water and transparent blocks of

ice which explained the phenomenon.

There is an event that served as the inspiration of the Raman effect. On a December

evening in 1927, Raman's student K. S. Krishnan (who later became the Director of

the National Physical Laboratory) gave him the news that Professor Compton had won the

Nobel Prize for his studies of the scattering of X-rays. This led Raman to theorize that if

the Compton effect is applicable for X-rays, then it may be for light also, and to devise some

experiments.

Raman employed monochromatic light from a mercury arc lamp which penetrated

transparent material and was allowed to fall on a spectrograph to record its spectrum. He

detected lines in the spectrum which he later called Raman lines. He presented his theory at

a meeting of scientists in Bangalore on 16 March 1928, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics

in 1930.

Honors and awards

Bust of Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman which is placed in the garden of Birla Industrial &

Technological Museum.

Raman was honoured with a large number of honorary doctorates and memberships of

scientific societies.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society early in his career (1924)

and knighted in 1929.

In 1930 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

In 1941 he was awarded the Franklin Medal.

In 1954 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna.

He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1957. In 1998, the American Chemical

Society and Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science recognised Raman's

discovery as an International Historic Chemical Landmark.

India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February of every year to commemorate the

discovery of the Raman effect in 1928.

Archive of Raman Research Papers

The Raman Research Institute, founded by Raman after his tenure at IISc, curates a

collection of Raman's research papers, and articles on the web

Death

At the end of October he collapsed in his laboratory, the valves of his heart having given

way. He was moved to hospital and the doctors gave him four hours to live. He survived and

after a few days refused to stay in the hospital as he preferred to die in the gardens of his

Institute surrounded by his flowers.

Two days before Raman died, he told one of his former students, "Do not allow the journals

of the Academy to die, for they are the sensitive indicators of the quality of science being

done in the country and whether science is taking root in it or not." That same evening,

Raman met with the Board of Management of his Institute and discussed (from his bed) with

them any proceedings with regards to the Institute’s management. Raman died from natural

causes early next morning on 21 November 1970.