Light excitation

One-photon excitation has lunitations due to the unwanted out-of-focus fliiorophore absorption and bleaching, and light scattering. These drawbacks can be circumvented if multiphoton excitation of the fliiorophore is used. Since it increases with the nth power of the photon density, significant absorption of the exciting light will only occur at the focal point of the objective where the required high photon density for absorption is reached. Consequently, only... 

Figure B2.5.13. Schematic representation of the four different mechanisms of multiphoton excitation (i) direct, (ii) Goeppert-Mayer (iii) quasi-resonant stepwise and (iv) incoherent stepwise. Full lines (right) represent the coupling path between the energy levels and broken arrows the photon energies with angular frequency to (Aco is the frequency width of the excitation light in the case of incoherent excitation), see also [111].

The polarization properties of single-molecule fluorescence excitation spectra have been explored and utilized to detennine botli tlie molecular transition dipole moment orientation and tlie deptli of single pentacene molecules in a /7-teriDhenyl crystal, taking into account tlie rotation of tlie polarization of tlie excitation light by tlie birefringent... 

Let us consider tire case of a donor-acceptor pair where tire acceptor, after capturing excitation from tire donor, can emit a photon of fluorescence. If tire excitation light is linearly polarized, tire acceptor emission generally has a different polarization. Common quantitative expressions of tliis effect are tire anisotropy of fluorescence, r, or tire degree of polarization,... 

Figure 6-4. Qualitative energy level diagram of the 1 Bu excinm band structure of T<, at A =0 derived by the Ewald dipole-dipole sums for excitation light propagating along the a crystal axis.

With fluorescence, however, the sensitivity is limited in principle only by the maximum intensity of the exciting light source so that under ideal conditions,... 

The photo cell senses light of all wavelengths that is generated by fluorescence but the wavelength of the excitation light can only be changed by use of an alternative lamp. This simple type of fluorescence detector was the first to be developed, is relatively inexpensive, and for certain compounds can be extremely sensitive. Typical specifications for a fluorescence detector are as follows ... 

Excess of the reagent hydrolyses to a non-fluorescent residue and the reagent itself does not fluoresce. The optimum wavelength of the excitation light is 390 nm and that of the emitted light 475 nm. This regent is, however, less sensitive than Fluoropa and the derivative is unstable consequently, it must be injected onto the column immediately after formation if used in pre-column derivatization. It has been used successfully in the separation and analysis of polyamines (32), catecholamines (33) and amino acids (34). 

Where I, andl are the measured intensities when the detector polarizer is respectively oriented parallel and perpendicular to the plane of the exciting light. 

Several different factors contribute to the depolarization of emitted fluorescence relative to the polarization of the excitation light. Most of these can be controlled by experimental parameters, but two factors are intrinsic to the method and must be evaluated ... 

Pulsed method. Using a pulsed or modulated excitation light source instead of constant illumination allows investigation of the time dependence of emission polarization. In the case of pulsed excitation, the measured quantity is the time decay of fluorescent emission polarized parallel and perpendicular to the excitation plane of polarization. Emitted light polarized parallel to the excitation plane decays faster than the excited state lifetime because the molecule is rotating its emission dipole away from the polarization plane of measurement. Emitted light polarized perpendicular to the excitation plane decays more slowly because the emission dipole moment is rotating towards the plane of measurement. 

Theory. If two or more fluorophores with different emission lifetimes contribute to the same broad, unresolved emission spectrum, their separate emission spectra often can be resolved by the technique of phase-resolved fluorometry. In this method the excitation light is modulated sinusoidally, usually in the radio-frequency range, and the emission is analyzed with a phase sensitive detector. The emission appears as a sinusoidally modulated signal, shifted in phase from the excitation modulation and partially demodulated by an amount dependent on the lifetime of the fluorophore excited state (5, Chapter 4). The detector phase can be adjusted to be exactly out-of-phase with the emission from any one fluorophore, so that the contribution to the total spectrum from that fluorophore is suppressed. For a sample with two fluorophores, suppressing the emission from one fluorophore leaves a spectrum caused only by the other, which then can be directly recorded. With more than two flurophores the problem is more complicated but a number of techniques for deconvoluting the complex emission curve have been developed making use of several modulation frequencies and measurement phase angles (79). 

For single exponential fluorescence decay, as is expected for a sample containing just one fluorophore, either the phase shift or the demodulation can be used to calculate the fluorescence lifetime t. When the excitation light is modulated at an angular frequency (o = 2itv, the phase angle f, by which the emission modulation is shifted from the excitation modulation, is related to the fluorescence lifetime by ... 

PLIF has become a very useful technique to measure local concentrations. In PLIF, a laser sheet is formed and a high-speed CCD camera measures the excited hght from a fluorescent dye that is mixed into the flow. Most commonly used is a simple laser at a fixed wavelength (532 nm for Nd YAG). The excited light has a longer wavelength and all Hght reflections from the laser are filtered out The camera is usually 10,12,... 

Nonlinear optical phenomena, as well as near-field optics, provide us with super resolving capability [20]. The probability of nonlinear optical phenomena is proportional to the number of photons which participate in the phenomenon. For example, the intensity distribution of two-photon excited fluorescence corresponds to the square of the excitation light. Thus, we proposed a combination of the field... 

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