| Laser Raman Spectroscopy (LRS) has received worldwide acknowledgement as a powerful molecular 'finger print' technique. The Raman spectrum of sample contains useful information such as molecular identity, composition, constituent's concentration ratio etc. These information are manifested in the Raman spectrum in band heights, peak wavelength, band areas etc. The basis of quantitative analysis in Raman spectroscopy lies in the measurement of Raman band intensity, which is linearly dependent upon the sample concentration. On the other hand, Raman spectroscopy can also yield the qualitative information of samples by exhibiting bands corresponding to various chemical constituents in the sample mixture. The potentiality of Raman spectroscopy to perform quantitative as well as qualitative analysis of samples has been exploited in the development of Raman sensors in conjugation with the techniques of fiber optics. The main focus of the presented doctoral work is to realize a fiber optic Raman sensor to monitor the quality of liquid oxygen (LO2) in a rocket engine feed line. In this research investigation, I have shown how a bulk experimental configuration can be transformed to miniaturized prototype sensor, which is equally capable to determine the ratio of liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen in their cryogenic mixture. This research was extended to monitor the concentration of oxygen and nitrogen in their gaseous mixture. Further, I have demonstrated that the Raman spectroscopy has the potentiality to measure the temperature of hydrogen in a laboratory environment by monitoring the variation in Raman rotation-vibrational line of hydrogen gas with temperature. Finally, I have experimentally studied the surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) of silver colloidal solution, which is another interesting branch of Raman spectroscopy that has transcended the limitation of very low Raman cross-section to offer more insight to the chemical properties of samples. |
