Photophysics of Ionic Biochromophores

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. General Concepts

   • Steen Brøndsted Nielsen, Jean Ann Wyer

   Pages 1-10

3. Introduction and New Aspects

   • Steen Brøndsted Nielsen

   Pages 11-19

4. Experimental Techniques

   • Jean Ann Wyer

   Pages 21-44

5. Theoretical Methods

   • Marius Wanko, Angel Rubio

   Pages 45-65

6. Photo-initiated Dynamics and Spectroscopy of the Deprotonated Green Fluorescent Protein Chromophore

   • Anastasia V. Bochenkova, Lars H. Andersen

   Pages 67-103

7. Fluorescence from Gas-Phase Biomolecular Ions

   • Steen Brøndsted Nielsen

   Pages 105-116

8. Spectroscopy of Ferric Heme and Protoporphyrin IX Ions In Vacuo

   • Jean Ann Wyer, Steen Brøndsted Nielsen

   Pages 117-139

9. UV–Visible Absorption Spectroscopy of Protein Ions

   • Rodolphe Antoine, Philippe Dugourd

   Pages 141-153

10. Excited-State Dynamics of Protonated Aromatic Amino Acids

    • Claude Dedonder, Géraldine Féraud, Christophe Jouvet

    Pages 155-180

11. UV Photophysics of DNA and RNA Nucleotides In Vacuo: Dissociation Channels, Time Scales, and Electronic Spectra

    • J. Mathias Weber, Jesse Marcum, Steen Brøndsted Nielsen

    Pages 181-207

12. Action Spectroscopy of Gas-Phase Peptide Ions with Energetic Photons

    • Thomas Schlathölter, Ronnie Hoekstra

    Pages 209-226

13. Back Matter

    Pages 227-230

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This book provides a concise overview of the photophysics and spectroscopy of bio chromophore ions. The book "Photophysics of Ionic Biochromophores" summarizes important recent advances in the spectroscopy of isolated biomolecular ions in vacuo, which has within the last decade become a highly active research field. Advanced instrumental apparatus and the steady increase in more and more powerful computers have made this development possible, both for experimentalists and theoreticians. Applied techniques described here include absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, which are excellent indicators of environmental effects and can thus shed light on the intrinsic electronic structures of ions without perturbations from e.g. water molecules, counter ions, nearby charges, and polar amino acid residues. When compared with spectra of the chromophores in their natural environment, such spectra allow to identify possible perturbations. At the same time gas-phase spectra provide important benchmarks for quantum chemistry calculations of electronically excited states.

This volume focuses on biological systems from protein biochromophores, e.g. the protonated Schiff-base retinal responsible for vision, and individual aromatic amino acids to peptides and whole proteins, studied using visible, ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet light. Work on DNA nucleotides and strands that are amenable to mass spectrometric studies because of the negatively charged sugarphosphate backbone are also presented. DNA strands represent an example of the interplay between multiple chromophores, which is even harder to model correctly than just single chromophores due to spatially extended excited states and weak coupling terms. The experimental techniques used to measure spectra and commonly used theoretical methods are described with a discussion on limitations and advantages. The volume includes an updated status of the field and interesting future directions such as cold ionspectroscopy.

• Absorption and Fluorescence Spectroscopy
• Amino Acid, Peptide and Protein Ions
• Biochromophore Ions
• Chromophore Interactions
• DNA Nucleotides and Strands
• Excited-state Dynamics
• Photobiophysics

• Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University Faculty of Science, Aarhus, Denmark

  Steen Brøndsted Nielsen

• Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University Faculty of Science, Aarhus C, Denmark

  Jean Ann Wyer

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