Abstract Submitted to the    NANOTUBE'04 Conference:

We report our latest results on the Raman characterization of carbon nanotubes and discuss novel spectroscopic techniques, placing them in the context of the general progress in the field of characterization techniques. Raman scattering has been used to characterize both bundles and individual SWNTs, and provides unique information about nanotube structure, i.e. diameter, chiral angle and handedness, as well as electronic properties through the resonance effect, and chemically/physically-induced phenomena. Optical absorption, photoluminescence and fast optics techniques are also discussed, addressing how they have been used to help the general progress in the field of characterization techniques.