Rapid shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy with a distributed feedback diode laser emitting at 785 nm

A distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode emitting at 785 nm was tested and applied as a light source for shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS). Due to the physical properties of the laser diode, it was possible to shift the emission wavelength by 8 cm-1 (0.5 nm) required for our SERDS measurements by simply changing the injection current. The internal grating ensured single mode operation at both wavelength with the frequency stability of ?0.06 cm-1 (0.004 nm) required for high resolution Raman spectroscopic applications. The shifted spectra were used for calculating enhanced Raman spectra being obscured by a strong scattering background. A 16 dB ( Delta #~38 fold) improvement of the signal-to-background noise S/ Delta *sB was demonstrated using blackboard chalk as a sample. The tunable DFB laser is a versatile excitation source for SERDS, which could be used in any dispersive Raman system to subtract fluorescence contributions and scattering background.