Resonance in the Raman scattering of CaF 2 , SrF 2 , BaF 2 and diamond

The dependence of the first order Raman scattering efficiency of CaF 2 , SrF 2 , BaF 2 and diamond on photon energy ω L has been measured with different techniques. We find that in the visible these cross‐sections increase with ω L much faster than ω   L 4 . This result has important implications as CaF 2 , for instance, is usually used as a standard scatterer in resonant Raman experiments, with the assumption that its efficiency is excatly proportional to ω   L 4 . The possible sources of these anomalies are discussed.