Semiconductor lasers for bio-medical Raman spectroscopy

During the 2000's and 2010's Raman spectroscopy has proved its potential to be used for chemical fingerprinting of biological materials. This has enabled this technique to be translated as a novel diagnostic tool for disease diagnosis with high sensitivity and specificity. Raman scattering, being a weak process, relies greatly on the power and spectral quality of the excitation source for its effectiveness. Advent of relatively high power, frequency stabilized semiconductor lasers which has relatively small form factor when compared to its gas laser counterparts enabled developing portable Raman systems for clinical diagnostics.