A new spectral window on retinal protein photochemistry

Boris Loevsky, Amir Wand, Oshrat Bismuth, Noga Friedman, Mordechai Sheves, Sanford Ruhman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

A VIS pump/hyperspectral NIR probe study of all-trans-retinal protonated Schiff base (RPSB) in ethanol is presented. Upon irradiation, a short-lived absorption band covers the recorded range of λ = 1-2 μm. It decays to reveal the tail of S 1 emission at λ < 1.3 μm, along with a residual absorption at longer wavelengths, both of which decay with the known kinetics of internal conversion to S 0. The existence of this hitherto unrecorded excited-state absorption deep in the NIR will require a revision of current models for RPSB electronic structure. The phenomenological similarity of these observations with ultrafast NIR studies of carotenoids raises the question of whether three, and not two, electronic states participate in RPSB photochemistry as well. The relevance of these observations to retinal protein photochemistry is discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1626-1629
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume133
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 16 Feb 2011

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