Development of a compact, handheld Raman instrument with no moving parts for use in field analysis

This article describes a lightweight, self-contained, field portable Raman instrument that has been developed for rapid on-site determination of primary mixture components. The instrument consists of a helium neon (HeNe) laser for excitation, an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) for wavelength discrimination, and an avalanche photodiode for detection. The AOTF is the primary component of this system and has been selected based on its spectral range (600–900 nm) along with its high resolution, ∼7.5 $cm−1.$ Labview™ based software for controlling the AOTF frequency and the signal acquisition has also been developed. Several different samples were analyzed (both solids and liquids) using this instrument for the evaluation of parameters such as spectral resolution, sensitivity, and data acquisition speed for certain environmentally important compounds. The results from these measurements are compared with those using a conventional laboratory Raman system consisting of a grating-based spectrograph and a charge-coupled device.