Ultrasensitive Optical Absorption Spectroscopy with Biomolecules

该奖项支持进一步开发基于法布里-珀罗腔增强生物分子光谱学的仪器。 该仪器将使用极高精细度的光学腔来增强激光吸收光谱的灵敏度，其配置允许研究液体溶剂或磷脂膜中的分子。这种方法有可能提供有关单个生物分子动态行为的信息，这是现代生物学的一个重要主题。该装置将使用细菌叶绿素进行测试，细菌叶绿素是细菌光合反应中心的一种成分。 尽管人们对电子转移的动力学和这种反应中心的原子结构了解很多，但这些信息来自对大量分子的整体性质的研究。 有关单个分子动力学的信息有可能为理解反应中心的结构和功能的相互关系提供实质性的改进。这项研究的更广泛的影响反映了来自广泛学科的研究生和本科生的参与，以及该仪器将使生物物理研究活动成为可能的结果，在量子光学和光学计量界具有很高的知名度。 这种可见性可能会鼓励这些领域与生物科学之间更多的技术交流。 加速发展用于生物实验的高度精密的光学仪器，可能对生物研究所用技术的未来进展产生重大影响。

This award supports further development of an instrument based on use of a Fabry-Perot for cavity-enhanced spectroscopy of biological molecules. The instrument will use an extremely high-finesse optical cavity to enhance the sensitivity of laser absorption spectroscopy, in a configuration that allows the study of molecules in liquid solvents or in phospholipid membranes. This approach has the potential to be able to provide information about the dynamic behavior of individual biological molecules, an important theme in modern biology. The device will be tested using bacteriochlorophyll, one component of the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center. Although much is known about the dynamics of electron transfer and the atomic structure of such reaction centers, the information comes from studies of the bulk properties of large numbers of molecules. Information about dynamics of individual molecules has the potential to provide substantial improvement in understanding of the interrelationship of structure and function in the reaction center. The broader impacts of this research reflect both the participation of graduate and undergraduate students from a wide range of academic disciplines and, as a result of the biophysical research activities that the instrument will make possible, high visibility in the quantum optics and optical metrology communities. This visibility is likely to encourage greater technical cross-fertilization between these fields and the biological sciences. An acceleration of the development of highly sophisticated optical instrumentation for biological experiments could have substantial impact on the future progress of the technology used in biological research.