Moving in on the Action: An Experimental Comparison of Fluorescence Excitation and Photodissociation Action Spectroscopy

作者：Wellman Sydney M J; Jockusch Rebecca A

来源：Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2015, 119(24): 6333-6338.

DOI：10.1021/acs.jpca.5b04835

Photodissociation action spectroscopy is often used as a proxy for measuring gas-phase absorption spectra of ions in a mass spectrometer. Although the potential discrepancy between linear optical and photodissociation spectra is generally acknowledged, direct experimental comparisons are lacking. In this work, we use a quadrupole ion trap that has been modified to enable both photodissociation and laser-induced fluorescence to assess how closely the visible photodissociation action spectrum of a fluorescent dye reflects its fluorescence excitation spectrum. Our results show the photodissociation action spectrum of gaseous rhodamine 110 is both substantially narrower and slightly red-shifted (similar to 120 cm(-1)) compared to its fluorescence excitation spectrum. Power dependence measurements reveal that the photodissociation of rhodamine 110 requires, on average, the absorption of three photons whereas fluorescence is a single-photon process. These differing power dependences are the key to interpreting the differences in the measured spectra. The experimental results provide much-needed quantification and insight into the differences between action spectra and linear optical spectra, and emphasize the utility of fluorescence excitation spectra to provide a more reliable benchmark for comparison with theory.

• 出版日期2015-6-18