Near-Field Raman Spectroscopy and Imaging

The scope of this chapter is to review the current status of near-field Raman spectroscopy. After a brief theoretical description of the Raman effect, the conventional experimental setups for Raman and micro-Raman spectroscopy are illustrated. Subsequently, the concepts of near-field optics are introduced, and the experimental setups for nano-Raman spectroscopy and imaging are described. Finally, we review the most relevant applications of this technique in materials science.