India flag created using Raman microscopy maps of C.V. Raman
In celebration of India’s National Science Day on 28th February 2023, a team at the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (nmRC) at the University of Nottingham have created an image of Sir C. V. Raman using confocal Raman microscopy.
National Science Day is celebrated on this date every year, in India, to mark the discovery of the Raman effect by Indian physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman in 1928, which led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.
To make the image, a silhouette image of Sir C. V. Raman was drawn using a technique called electron beam lithography combined with thermal evaporation to produce a gold on silicon image. The false colour Raman image was subsequently produced by mapping the intensity of a vibrational mode of the silicon substrate. The image comprises nearly ~500,000 individual Raman spectra and took just 28 minutes to acquire! These images were then false coloured in the colours of the flag of India and arranged to create the flag.
The nanofabrication part was conducted by Dr Richard Cousins, and the Raman microscopy by Dr Graham Rance.
To find out more about the step by step process of creating the piece, please check out our guide below.
Happy National Science Day 2023!
Posted on Monday 27th February 2023