Picosecond fluorescent time-resolved technique

Kim and Johnston (27), and Yonker and Smith (22) have used solute solvatochroism to determine the composition of the local solvent environment in binary supercritical fluids. In our laboratory we investigate solute-cosolvent interactions by using a fluorescent solute molecule (a probe) whose emission characteristics are sensitive to its local solvent environment. In this way, it is possible to monitor changes in the local solvent composition using the probe fluorescence. Moreover, by using picosecond time-resolved techniques, one can determine the kinetics of fluid compositional fluctuation in the cybotactic region. 

Time-Resolved Techniques. Early attempts were made at discriminating the Raman signal from the fluorescence background by time-resolved techiuques. The Raman effect is a vibrational process and occurs on the time scale of about 10 sec, while fluorescence lifetimes typically occur in the nanosecond to picosecond regime. Because the time scales... 

Chapter 6 described the current techniques employed in time-resolved fluorescence spectrocopy. The time resolution of these techniques ranges from a few picoseconds (streak cameras) to a few hundreds of picoseconds (single-photon timing with flash lamp excitation). The time resolution can be greatly improved by using the fluorescence up-conversion technique. 

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 time-resolved techniques that are usually used for FLIM are based on electronic-basis detection methods such as the time-correlated single photon counting or streak camera. Therefore, the time resolution of the FLIM system has been limited by several tens of picoseconds. However, fluorescence microscopy has the potential to provide much more information if we can observe the fluorescence dynamics in a microscopic region with higher time resolution. Given this background, we developed two types of ultrafast time-resolved fluorescence microscopes, i.e., the femtosecond fluorescence up-conversion microscope and the... 

To study the excited state one may use transient absorption or time-resolved fluorescence techniques. In both cases, DNA poses many problems. Its steady-state spectra are situated in the near ultraviolet spectral region which is not easily accessible by standard spectroscopic methods. Moreover, DNA and its constituents are characterised by extremely low fluorescence quantum yields (<10 4) which renders fluorescence studies particularly difficult. Based on steady-state measurements, it was estimated that the excited state lifetimes of the monomeric constituents are very short, about a picosecond [1]. Indeed, such an ultrafast deactivation of their excited states may reduce their reactivity something which has been referred to as a "natural protection against photodamage. To what extent the situation is the same for the polymeric DNA molecule is not clear, but longer excited state lifetimes on the nanosecond time scale, possibly of excimer like origin, have been reported [2-4],... 

In order to understand the dynamics of the solvent fluctuation, many experimental as well as theoretical efforts have been made intensively in the last decade. One of the most convenient methods to observe solvent reorganization relaxation processes within the excited state molecule is time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. By using time resolved techniques a time dependent fluorescence peak shift, so ( ed dynamic Stokes shift, has been detected in nanosecond picosecond >, and femtosecond time regions. Another method to observe solvent relaxation processes is time resolved absorption spectroscopy. This method is suitable for the observation of the ground state recovery of the solvent orientational distribution surrounding a solute molecule. 

The great sensitivity of fluorescence spectral, intensity, decay and anisotropy measurements has led to their widespread use in synthetic polymer systems, where interpretations of results are based upon order, molecular motion, and electronic energy migration (1). Time-resolved methods down to picosecond time-resolution using a variety of detection methods but principally that of time-correlated single photon counting, can in principle, probe these processes in much finer detail than steady-state techniques, but the complexity of most synthetic polymers poses severe problems in interpretation of results. 

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