Fluorescence spectroscopy picosecond systems

Pairwise EET rates cannot be directly measured in antenna systems. The closest approach to direct determination is offered on the one hand by time resolved picosecond and sub-picosecond absorption and fluorescence measurements and on the other hand by hole burning spectroscopies. Time resolved techniques do not detect transfer between isoenergetic sites. A somewhat more indirect approach to determining pairwise rates is that of analysing excited state lifetime data in terms of a particular antenna and an EET model. 

The use of picosecond pulses to minimize the Interference of fluorescence with the Raman spectrum was also demonstrated (5) at about that time. The use of vldicon detection in Raman spectroscopy was demonstrated (6) in 1976. The first resonance Raman spectrum taken for a photobiologlcal system (bacteriorhodopsin) in the nanosecond time scale was (7) in 1977. The resonance Raman spectra of bacteriorhodopsin have also been measured in the microsecond (8,9,10) and in the millisecond (11) time domain. Recently the time resolved resonance Raman spectra of photolyzed hemoglobin derivatives have been reported (12). 

We have performed super-resolution infrared microscopy by combining a laser fluorescence microscope with picosecond time-resolved TFD-IR spectroscopy. In this chapter, we have demonstrated that the spatial resolution of the infrared microscope improved to more than twice the diffraction limit of IR light. It should he relatively straightforward to improve the spatial resolution to less than 1 pm by building a confocal optical system. Thus, in the near future, the spatial resolution of our infrared microscope will be improved to a sub-micron scale. 

While useful as a simple, model case with which one can demonstrate many of the principles involved in vibrational coherence, IVR between two vibrational levels is clearly not a very general situation. In view of the expectation that vibrational coupling in molecules may involve any number of levels and that many such cases of multilevel IVR are amenable to study by picosecond spectroscopy, it is useful to have theoretical guidelines301 pertaining to the manifestations that a system of N coupled vibrational levels might exhibit in time-resolved fluorescence. Hence, we consider now the situation depicted in Fig. 2. 

However, time-resolved optical spectroscopy is perhaps the premier method for learning about the dynamics of a complex system, especially on nanosecond or picosecond time scales. Some DNA dynamics data from NMR spectroscopy are presented in Table 4.3. Time-resolved emission decays, time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy, and time-resolved Stokes shifts measurements of probe molecules in DNA have been described (and see below) and fast components in the time decays assigned to various DNA motions. The dynamics as a function of sequence are incompletely mapped and provide an exciting area for future investigations. 

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