Give ’em Pumpkin to Talk About – Spectrifying Sweets on the RMS1000

Happy Halloween! The applications team at Edinburgh Instruments are getting into the spooky spirit with some supernatural Raman maps taken on the new RMS1000 Raman Microscope.

Raman maps were acquired of two Halloween cake toppers. The RMS1000’s superior mapping capabilities are highlighted in these detailed Raman images. Thanks to the true confocality of the Raman microscope we can see every detail from ghostly eyes to sinister smiles.

The Raman spectrum of glucose, one of the main components of these sugary sweets, is shown in Figure 1. A stitched visible image was taken and then the Raman map to produce these videos guiding you through the transition from unsuspecting visible images to unearthly Raman images.

Figure 1: Glucose spectrum taken on the RMS1000 Raman Microscope

The pumpkin presented some issues for Raman spectral measurements. Due to the orange dye used to colour the pumpkin we see a large amount of sample fluorescence – this means we have to select our laser carefully. A 785 nm laser excitation is preferred to using a laser in the visible region as we see reduced fluorescence interference whilst retaining high Raman intensity.

RMS1000

If you are working in the field of Raman Spectroscopy, our Confocal Raman Microscope may be the perfect partner for your Raman research.

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