X-ray diffraction (XRD) and absorption spectroscopy (XAS) are the principal techniques used to investigate the long and short-range order of atoms and molecules in the solid state.

The Raman technique, in contrast, has the ability to probe the length scale between these two extremes. The synergy between these methodologies has attracted many scientific studies where the Raman and XRD or XAS techniques have been previously performed ex-situ.

In the last decade, combinations of the above techniques with the simultaneous collection of the different probe signals have been successfully tested on many synchrotron beam lines (APS, SOLEIL, SLS, DIAMOND, BESSY, ANKA, ESRF). After three years of testing with users, Raman spectroscopy has now become a routine tool at the Swiss-Norwegian Beam Lines (SNBL) at ESRF. It can easily be combined with the traditionally available techniques: single crystal and powder XRD and XAFS including a wide variety of in-situ equipment.