CV Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, two years after he discovered the Raman effect and made impeccable contributions in the field of light scattering. Due to his contributions to the field and to the world, India honored him with the most prestigious award – the Bharat Ratna. It was not just in the field of science that he earned a name. 

He was also as a Mathematics lecturer. He was a part of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) where he was initially researching. While C V Raman was working on the Raman effect, Russian scientists were parallelly making advances in the same effect with reference to crystals. 

                                                                                                                                                                                               But the Nobel Prize committee was clear that C V Raman stood apart because he came to an independent conclusion and a unique way of interpretation. While the Russian scientists were observing the effect on crystals, Raman, along with his colleague, K.S Krishnan, observed the effect on all states of matter, namely solids, liquids, and gas. He was able to prove that his phenomenon was universal by nature. 

So, what exactly did he discover? Raman Scattering is a term that derives from the Raman effect and involves molecules that are high on vibrations and have high energy levels of rotation. These molecules cause the inelastic scattering of a Photon, and this phenomenon is the Raman Effect. 

It has brought a major change in perspectives because usually when photons are scattered from a given molecule, they are scattered in an elastic way which means that they all share the same characteristics in terms of the energy levels with the initial or incident photons. 

But, a small amount of these photons that are scattered are done so in an inelastic manner due to the excitation. This means that the photons that are displaced, or perhaps, scattered, have different energy levels as compared to the initial photons and are usually low on energy than the latter. 

The Raman Effect or Raman Scattering has had a huge impact on current day Engineering. An example is Raman Spectroscopy which involves analyzing and observing modes in a system on the basis of vibration, rotation and low frequency. This involves an interaction between laser light and molecules. As a result of excitation, the photons within the laser shift and change their energies. This works along the lines of the aforementioned Effect.