In a laser based curing apparatus, the acts both as the curing light and the excitation source for a Raman spectroscopic sensor. The spectroscopic sensor provides real-time, in situ, non-invasive curing status monitoring via Raman spectroscopy. The spectroscopic information can be further used to control the operation parameters of the laser to achieve the optimum cure result.

An apparatus for measuring properties of physical matters by means of Raman spectroscopy including a laser element, a wavelength dispersion element, an array or single element detector, and a control and data processing unit. The laser element, which is used to excite Raman scattering, is spectrum narrowed and stabilized by attachment of a Bragg grating device. The grating can be either a volume Bragg grating (VBG) written inside a glass substrate or a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) written inside an optical fiber. A laser element can be provided with a wavelength modulation capability for fluorescence background suppression.