Examination of ink by Raman Spectroscopy (CAT#: STEM-ST-0026-WXH)

Introduction

Examination of ink is very important aspect for the investigation of questioned documents. Sometimes it is necessary to apply chemical methods that normally cause partial destruction of the examined material, but Raman spectroscopy provides direct identification of inks on documents for determination of sequence of the handwritten lines. The investigations are mostly often aimed at authenticating the document or at determining its age or origin.
This could be possible due to some characteristics of the ink such as luminescence in visible or in infrared light. A good discrimination between inks has been obtained using Raman spectroscopy, possibly used to differentiate between inks of the same colour.