Understanding Raman Spectroscopy:When a monochromatic light source, typically a laser, illuminates a sample, most of the light is elastically scattered (Rayleigh scattering). However, a small fraction of the light is inelastically scattered, resulting in a shift in energy that corresponds to the vibrational modes of the molecules in the sample. This shift, known as the Raman shift, is detected and analyzed to provide information about the sample's molecular structure.