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Light-induced fast conformational change in all-trans-retinal at low temperature

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Abstract

AN understanding of the excited state properties of retinal is essential for the elucidation of the mechanism of the visual process, because the photochemistry of the visual chromophore accounts to a large extent for the early bleaching stages of rhodospin1. All-trans-retinal has some unusual optical properties. It exhibits a dependence of its fluorescence quantum yield on the exciting wavelength2,3 as well as an anomalous heavy atom effect4. In addition, the nature of its emitting state has not been determined; there is evidence5–7, however, for the presence of a low lying, weakly allowed 1Ag state in some other polyenes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37916

    S. GEORGHIOU

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  1. S. GEORGHIOU
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GEORGHIOU, S. Light-induced fast conformational change in all-trans-retinal at low temperature. Nature 259, 423–424 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/259423a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/259423a0

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