Total internal reflection planar interface

N. L. Thompson and T. P. Burghardt, Total internal reflection fluorescence Measurement of spatial and orientation distributions of fluorophores near planar dielectric interfaces, Biophys. Chem. 25, 91-97 (1986). 

Here, a laser beam totally internally reflects at a sohd/hquid interface, creating an evanescent field, which penetrates only a fraction of the wavelength into the liquid domain. When using planar phosphoHpid bilayer and fluorescently labeled proteins, this method allows the determination of adsorption/desorption rate constants and surface diffusion constants [171—173]. Figure 6.29 shows a representative TIRF-FPR curve for fluorescein-labeled prothrombin bound to planar membranes. In this experiment the experimental conditions are chosen such that the recovery curve is characterized by the prothrombin desorption rate. It should be mentioned that, similar to other applications of fluorescence microscopy, two and three photon absorption might be combined with FRAP in the near future. 

Fig. 1-3 Reflection at a planar interface between unbounded regions of refractive indices nd n, showing (a) total internal reflection and (b) partial reflection and refraction.

When a plane wave undergoes total internal reflection at a planar interface between two semi-infinite, uniform dielectric media, as in Fig. 10-2, an evanescent field is set up in the rarer medium and the reflected wave differs in... 

Fig. 10-2 Total internal reflection of a plane wave at a planar interface between semi-infinite media of refractive indices and When = n, the phase change (j) is approximately independent of the direction of E i- - independent of polarization.

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