Laser Spectrofluorimetry of Chlorophylls

Abstract

A device has been set up to determine quantitatively the weak fluorescence intensities of pigment molecules. It consists of a laser spectrofluorimeter. The excitation beam can be produced with either a He/Cd laser (441.6 nm) or a He/Ne laser (632.8 nm). This system allows us to detect the fluorescence of dilute chlorophyll a or b solutions of the order of 10−12 mol/l. This sensitivity also permits the study of the emission spectra from chlorophyll in monomolecular or solid states, and since a polarization rotator has been incorporated into our apparatus, one may presume some possible orientation of the molecules.