Infrared spectroscopy became the preferred method after World War II primarily because it became much easier to use due to the development of sensitive infrared detectors and advances in electronics. Infrared spectroscopy measurements became routine, while Raman spectroscopy still required skilled operators and darkroom facilities.

Although the development of lasers in the 1960's spurred renewed interest in the Raman technique, acceptance was mainly limited to research laboratories. This old style of instrumentation was still based on dispersive grating systems which require skilled operators just to collect simple spectra. These system need to be constantly maintained and calibrated since the wavelength scale will drift with changing ambient conditions — such processes as reliable subtractions and library searches were unthinkable.

In addition to these difficulties, Raman spectroscopy was also plagued by fluorescence. Fluorescence is a strong light emission from the sample which interferes with — and often completely swamps — the weak Raman signal. However, the chance of an unknown sample exhibiting fluorescence is strongly dependent on the wavelength of the laser used for excitation.

Recent publications suggest that even with modern dispersive systems using red excitation (around 800 nm), at least 40% of real world samples suffer from fluorescence. Only by moving the excitation all the way to the near infrared (with wavelengths around 1 micron) does the chance of fluorescence drop to a few percent.

Dispersive Raman usually employs visible laser radiation. Typical laser wavelengths are 780 nm, 633 nm, 532 nm, and 473 nm, although others are common. The efficiency of Raman scatter is proportional to 1/λ⁴ , so there is a strong enhancement as the excitation laser wavelength becomes shorter.

In 1986, near-infrared excitation and a commercial interferometer-based FT-IR spectrometer were combined to record a Raman spectrum. This has lead to a number of advantages. Near-infrared laser excitation (around 1 micron wavelength) greatly reduces the number of samples prone to fluorescence and allows higher laser powers to be used without photo decomposition.

FT-Raman's interferometric data collection produces throughput and multiplex advantages similar to its counterpart, FT-IR spectroscopy. This can dramatically increase the speed of data collection and makes sample alignment trivial. Accurate spectral libraries and quantitative analysis are available for FT-Raman.

The ability of FT-Raman to quickly analyze a very wide variety of sample types and the FT's ability to collect a full high resolution spectral range in a single measurement have made the Raman technique accessible to a far greater number of scientists.