1,094 research outputs found
ENERGY TRANSFER IN TRIMERIC C-PHYCOCYANIN STUDIED BY PICOSECOND FLUORESCENCE KINETICS
The excited state kinetics of trimeric C-phycocyanin from Mastigocladus laminosus has been measured as a function of the emission and excitation wavelength by the single-photon timing technique with picosecond resolution and simultaneous data analysis. A fast decay component of 22 ps (C-phycocyanin with linker peptides) and 36 ps (C-phycocyanin lacking linker peptides) is attributed to efficient energy transfer from sensitizing to fluorescing chromophores. At long detection wavelengths the fast decay components are found to turn into a rise term. This finding further corroborates the concept of intramolecular energy transfer. Previous reports on the conformational heterogeneity of the chromophores and/or proteins in C-phycocyanin are confirmed. Our data also provide indications for the importance of the uncoloured linker peptides for this heterogeneity
Optical frequency comb generation from a monolithic microresonator
Optical frequency combs provide equidistant frequency markers in the
infrared, visible and ultra-violet and can link an unknown optical frequency to
a radio or microwave frequency reference. Since their inception frequency combs
have triggered major advances in optical frequency metrology and precision
measurements and in applications such as broadband laser-based gas sensing8 and
molecular fingerprinting. Early work generated frequency combs by intra-cavity
phase modulation while to date frequency combs are generated utilizing the
comb-like mode structure of mode-locked lasers, whose repetition rate and
carrier envelope phase can be stabilized. Here, we report an entirely novel
approach in which equally spaced frequency markers are generated from a
continuous wave (CW) pump laser of a known frequency interacting with the modes
of a monolithic high-Q microresonator13 via the Kerr nonlinearity. The
intrinsically broadband nature of parametric gain enables the generation of
discrete comb modes over a 500 nm wide span (ca. 70 THz) around 1550 nm without
relying on any external spectral broadening. Optical-heterodyne-based
measurements reveal that cascaded parametric interactions give rise to an
optical frequency comb, overcoming passive cavity dispersion. The uniformity of
the mode spacing has been verified to within a relative experimental precision
of 7.3*10(-18).Comment: Manuscript and Supplementary Informatio
FÖRSTER TRANSFER CALCULATIONS BASED ON CRYSTAL STRUCTURE DATA FROM Agmenellum quadruplicatum C-PHYCOCYANIN
Excitation energy transfer in C-phycocyanin is modeled using the Forster inductive resonance mechanism. Detailed calculations are carried out using coordinates and orientations of the chromophores derived from X-ray crystallographic studies of C-phycocyanin from two different species (Schirmer et al, J. Mol. Biol. 184, 257–277 (1985) and ibid., 188, 651-677 (1986)). Spectral overlap integrals are estimated from absorption and fluorescence spectra of C-phycocyanin of Mastigocladus laminosus and its separated subunits. Calculations are carried out for the β-subunit, αβ-monomer, (αβ)3-trimer and (αβ)0-hexamer species with the following chromophore assignments: β155 = 's’(sensitizer), β84 =‘f (fluorescer) and α84 =‘m’(intermediate):]:. The calculations show that excitation transfer relaxation occurs to 3=98% within 200 ps in nearly every case; however, the rates increase as much as 10-fold for the higher aggregates. Comparison with experimental data on fluorescence decay and depolarization kinetics from the literature shows qualitative agreement with these calculations. We conclude that Forster transfer is sufficient to account for all of the observed fluorescence properties of C-phycocyanin in aggregation states up to the hexamer and in the absence of linker polypeptides
Comb-calibrated solar spectroscopy through a multiplexed single-mode fiber channel
We investigate a new scheme for astronomical spectrograph calibration using
the laser frequency comb at the Solar Vacuum Tower Telescope on Tenerife. Our
concept is based upon a single-mode fiber channel, that simultaneously feeds
the spectrograph with comb light and sunlight. This yields nearly perfect
spatial mode matching between the two sources. In combination with the absolute
calibration provided by the frequency comb, this method enables extremely
robust and accurate spectroscopic measurements. The performance of this scheme
is compared to a sequence of alternating comb and sunlight, and to absorption
lines from Earth's atmosphere. We also show how the method can be used for
radial-velocity detection by measuring the well-explored 5-minute oscillations
averaged over the full solar disk. Our method is currently restricted to solar
spectroscopy, but with further evolving fiber-injection techniques it could
become an option even for faint astronomical targets.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures. A video abstract for this paper is available on
youtube. For watching the video, please follow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oshdZgrt89I . The video abstract is also
available for streaming and download on the related article website of New
Journal of Physic
Orthogonal Polynomial Projectors for the Projector Augmented Wave Method of Electronic Structure Calculations
The projector augmented wave (PAW) method for electronic structure calculations developed by Blochl [Phys. Rev. B 50, 17 953 (1994)] has been very successfully used for density functional studies. It has the numerical advantages of pseudopotential techniques while retaining the physics of all-electron formalisms. We describe a method for generating the set of atom-centered projector and basis functions that are needed for the PAW method. This scheme chooses the shapes of the projector functions from a set of orthogonal polynomials multiplied by a localizing weight factor. Numerical benefits of the scheme result from having direct control of the shape of the projector functions and from the use of a simple repulsive local potential term to eliminate ‘‘ghost state’’ problems, which can plague calculations of this kind. Electronic density of states results are presented for the mineral powellite (CaMoO4)
On the quantization of SU(3)-skyrmions
The quantization condition derived previously for SU(2) solitons quantized
with SU(3)-collective coordinates is generalized for SU(3) skyrmions with
strangeness content different from zero. Quantization of the dipole-type
configuration with large strangeness content found recently is considered as an
example.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures (available by request
BILIPROTEINS FROM THE BUTTERFLY Pieris brassicae STUDIED BY TIME-RESOLVED FLUORESCENCE AND COHERENT ANTI-STOKES RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY
The fluorescence decay time of the biliverdin IX7 chromophore present in biliproteins isolated from Pieris brassicae is determined to be 44 ± 3 ps. This value suggests a cyclic helical chromophore structure. The vibrational frequencies determined by CARS-spectroscopy are compared with those of model compounds. The data confirm that the chromophore in the protein-bound state adopts a cyclic-helical, flexible conformation
Precision spectroscopy of the 3s-3p fine structure doublet in Mg+
We apply a recently demonstrated method for precision spectroscopy on strong
transitions in trapped ions to measure both fine structure components of the
3s-3p transition in 24-Mg+ and 26-Mg+. We deduce absolute frequency reference
data for transition frequencies, isotope shifts and fine structure splittings
that are in particular useful for comparison with quasar absorption spectra,
which test possible space-time variations of the fine structure constant. The
measurement accuracy improves previous literature values, when existing, by
more than two orders of magnitude
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