Led by demand for Raman spectrometers, the total molecular spectroscopy market is expected to grow 3.7% in 2015 to more than $4 billion. This technology segment, which consists of nine techniques, has an extensive range of applications, from identifying water contaminants to determining protein structure.

Offering a wide variety of molecular spectroscopy techniques, Bruker is currently the top player in the molecular spectroscopy market, with a vendor share of 19%. With an 11% share, Thermo Fisher Scientific also participates in multiple technology segments. In third place is Danaher, with 8% of the total market due to its water-quality business. Agilent Technologies and PerkinElmer currently have 7%and 6%, respectively, of the overall molecular spectroscopy market. Agilent competes in UV-visible (UV-Vis), fluorescence and infrared (IR) spectroscopy markets. PerkinElmer participates in a majority of the technology markets and is a major player in fluorescence and IR. The top five vendors comprise just over half of the total market.

The largest segment of the molecular spectroscopy market is NMR spectroscopy, which makes up more than a quarter of total demand. The NMR market is forecast to grow only 1.6% in 2015, generating revenues of just under $1.1 billion. Bruker dominates the NMR market. In a significant market development, Agilent announced in October 2014 that it is exiting the NMR business (see IBO 10/15/14).

UV-Vis is the second-largest segment, accounting for almost 22% of the molecular spectroscopy market. While a large market, the growth rate for this traditional technique is expected to be only 3.2%, reaching $875 million in 2015. The leading supplier of UV-Vis spectrometers is Hach (Danaher).

IR is the third-largest molecular spectroscopy market and is forecast to grow 4.6% this year to more than $730 million. Demand for portable spectrometers is among the factors fueling growth in this and other molecular spectroscopy markets.

Color measurement, which is commonly used in quality control for a variety of industrial applications, makes up over 9% of the total molecular spectroscopy market. Demand is expected to grow almost 4% in 2015, reaching about $375 million. Danaher is the leader in this market due to its acquisition of X-Rite (see IBO 4/15/12).

With over 9% sales growth expected in 2015, Raman spectroscopy is the fastest-growing segment of the molecular spectroscopy market. With less than 7% of the market, the demand for this technology is expected to reach $286 million in 2015, boosted by the handheld-Raman market and strong demand from security and public-safety applications.

Fluorescence and luminescence spectroscopy make up 4% of the market and can expect solid sales growth of 5.7% this year. The top vendors are HORIBA and PerkinElmer. Polarimeters and refractometers, prominent technologies in the food and beverage industry, is the second-smallest segment of the molecular spectroscopy market and can expect less than 2% growth in 2015 due to the maturity of this market in developed regions.

Ellipsometry represents less than 2% of the molecular spectroscopy market, which sales expected to grow 7.0%. Ellipsometry analyzes flat surfaces and is widely used in semiconductor and electronics applications.

Other significant molecular spectroscopy vendors include FOSS, the leader in NIR spectroscopy; Shimadzu, a leader in UV-Vis and fluorescence; JASCO, which provides molecular spectroscopy techniques in several segments; and JEOL, an NMR supplier.