Spectroscopy - May 2008 - (Page 16)

16 SPECTROSCOPY GLOBAL EDITION MAY 2008 active passion for Raman, back to the days when the technique was first introduced with lasers. At the time, the technique was known as “laser Raman spectroscopy.” I actually even wrote a chapter in a book about the use of Raman in the oil and petroleum industries (3). This work was started in 1971 as part of my postgraduate work. My passion for Raman stems from the simplicity of the technique in terms of sample handling. It is an ideal technique to be included as a component in the famed Tricorder (for Star Trek buffs). You shine a laser on the subject and you get information back that leads to a material’s identification —what could be better? That has to be the panacea for an analytical chemist. As we all know, life has not been that easy for Raman spectroscopy. However, some of the key obstacles are starting to be removed and we are becoming more accepting. My rule of thumb for years has been that good enough is OK. Thankfully, people are waking up to this fact for Raman, and people are no longer striving for ultimate resolution of ultimate stability for low-cost laser systems. We now see commercial Raman systems with 10-cm 1 and 15-cm 1 spectral resolution. This is OK because for a lot of applications this is adequate, and good enough is OK! Also, if you accept that 15 cm 1 is OK, then you can lower your laser stability requirements, and suddenly, low-cost solid-state lasers become acceptable. Because of the continued trend in Raman, I will provide a bit more focus on the topic in this article. Another area in which we are seeing a meaningful and welcome trend is in portable and handheld instrumentation. At the show this year we saw three new handheld Fourier transform (FT)-IR products (actually, strictly two because two have common ancestry) and a palmsized Raman instrument. Although not strictly handheld, there were several examples of portable instruments — several FT-IR and Raman products, as well as UV–vis products. Field-portable and handheld are starting to become a mantra in the analytical instrument business, and regular benchtop instruments tend to be somewhat passé, although they should not be ignored! There are some excellent new benchtop instruments, and like the trend from desktop to laptop computers, the benchtop products are becoming great value for the money. And, we must not ignore the enabling technologies. There were a good number of new components and core technology products introduced, as well as accessories. It is worth remembering that these products, often displayed in 10- or 20-ft booths, can become the mainstay of the industry. These technologies ultimately make real applications work, and they enable brand new market/business opportunities for the analytical industry. I have quoted this before, but in the past, the analytical instrument industry was likened to a collection of cottage indus-

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Spectroscopy - May 2008 Contents A Pragmatic Approach to Managing Interferences in ICP-MS Pittcon 2008: Back to New Orleans and Coffee and Beignets for Breakfast News Market Profile Calendar

Spectroscopy - May 2008

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