C. V. Raman and the Discovery of the Raman Effect

Abstract

In 1928 the Indian physicist C. V. Raman (1888-1970) discovered the effect named after him virtually simultaneously with the Russian physicists G. S. Landsberg (1890-1957) and L. I. Mandelstam (1879-1944). I first provide a biographical sketch of Raman through his years in Calcutta (1907-1932) and Bangalore (after 1932). I then discuss his scientific work in acoustics, astronomy, and optics up to 1928, including his views on Albert Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis and on Arthur Holly Compton's discovery of the Compton effect, with particular reference to Compton's debate on it with William Duane in Toronto in 1924, which Raman witnessed. I then examine Raman's discovery of the Raman effect and its reception among physicists. Finally, I suggest reasons why Landsberg and Mandelstam did not share the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1930 with Raman.