Raman Imaging Spectroscopy: History, Fundamentals and Current Scenario of the Technique

Raman imaging spectroscopy is a relatively new technique that has raised interest in several areas of knowledge due to the possibility of evaluating the spatial distribution of compounds based on their spectra. This paper presents a brief history of the development of this important technique, a theoretical description of the Raman effect and the preprocessing and processing (both univariate and multivariate) tools for Raman data. We also describe the current state of applications for major areas such as agriculture/biomass, environment, biology, medicine, pharmaceutical, geology, foodstuff, artwork, archaeology, material characterization and forensic.