Title: Raman optical activity
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - Raman optical activity
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.08666
Status: current

Definition
Phenomenon that vibrations in chiral molecules and materials Raman scattering right circularly polarized incident radiation to a different extent than left circularly polarized incident radiation.

Note
In practice, the circular polarization of the exciting beam, or of the scattered beam, or of both beams simultaneously, may be selected. Raman optical activity is usually specified as 'right minus left' circular polarizations, in unfortunate contrast to the 'left minus right' specification that is universal in vibrational circular polarization and other forms of optical activity.

Source
- PAC, 2021, 93, 647. 'Glossary of methods and terms used in analytical spectroscopy (IUPAC Recommendations 2019)' on page 761 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0203)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08666/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08666/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08666/xml

Citation: Citation: 'Raman optical activity' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.08666
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-29T03:18:27+00:00