Welcome on the repository of the Sailowtech Open-Raman project, a low-cost and open-source Raman microscope.
The aim of this project is to create a Raman microscope that could be taken on a boat for scientific expeditions, specially to analyze microplastics in the ocean. Up to now, very few articles described projects of low-cost Raman microscopes (Jitao Lu, Qingsheng Xue, Haoxuan Bai, and Nan Wang, "Design of a confocal micro-Raman spectroscopy system and research on microplastics detection," Appl. Opt. 60, 8375-8383 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.433256 and Aydogan, O., & Tasal, E. (2018). Designing and building a 3D printed low cost modular Raman spectrometer. CERN IdeaSquare Journal of Experimental Innovation, 2(2), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.23726/cij.2017.799). However, there is quite some literature about low-cost Raman spectroscopes and about low-cost microscopes. So the idea of this project was to try to put together these 2 elements to design a low-cost Raman microscope.
February-June 2024: Maxence and Armelle created the design of the Raman microscope, based on a literature review. This project was supervised by Alan Bowman (Laboratory of Nanoscience for Energy Technologies at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). The components chosen for this design were either purchased online or 3D printed. The mounting was made by Alan due to a lack of time. Maxence coded the detector
June-August 2024: the Raman microscope was onboard during the Arvor expedition of Sailowtech to test it in real conditions
Contains all the reports and presentations that constitute the formal documentation of the Raman microscope
Contains the list of materials used for the design of the Raman microscope. For the first trial of the design, similar pieces with equivalent specifications were used when available in the Laboratory of Nanoscience for Energy Technologies to avoid purchasing too much materials.
Protocol created to test the design of the Raman microscope in real conditions during the Arvor expedition of summer 2024.