Two-photon absorption and excitation spectroscopy of carotenoids, chlorophylls and pigment-protein complexes.

In addition to (bacterio)chlorophylls, (B)Chls, photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes bind carotenoids (Cars) that fulfil various important functions which are not fully understood, yet. However, certain excited states of Cars are optically one-photon forbidden ("dark") and can potentially undergo excitation energy transfer (EET) to (B)Chls following two-photon absorption (TPA). The amount of EET is reflected by the differences in TPA and two-photon excitation (TPE) spectra of a complex (multi-pigment) system.

A novel endoimaging system for endoscopic 3D reconstruction in bladder cancer patients.

Introduction: The methods employed to document cystoscopic findings in bladder cancer patients lack accuracy and are subject to observer variability. We propose a novel endoimaging system and an online documentation platform to provide post-procedural 3D bladder reconstructions for improved diagnosis, management and follow-up.

Material And Methods: The RaVeNNA4pi consortium is comprised of five industrial partners, two university hospitals and two technical institutes.

Two-photon excitation spectroscopy of photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes and pigments.

In addition to (bacterio)chlorophylls, (B)Chls, light-harvesting complexes (LHCs) bind carotenoids, and/or their oxygen derivatives, xanthophylls. Xanthophylls/carotenoids have pivotal functions in LHCs: in stabilization of the structure, as accessory light-harvesting pigments and, probably most importantly, in photoprotection. Xanthophylls are assumed to be involved in the not yet fully understood mechanism of energy-dependent (qE) non-photochemical quenching of Chl fluorescence (NPQ) in higher plants and algae.

Elucidation of structure-function relationships in plant major light-harvesting complex (LHC II) by nonlinear spectroscopy.

Conventional linear and time-resolved spectroscopic techniques are often not appropriate to elucidate specific pigment-pigment interactions in light-harvesting pigment-protein complexes (LHCs). Nonlinear (laser-) spectroscopic techniques, including nonlinear polarization spectroscopy in the frequency domain (NLPF) as well as step-wise (resonant) and simultaneous (non-resonant) two-photon excitation spectroscopies may be advantageous in this regard. Nonlinear spectroscopies have been used to elucidate substructure(s) of very complex spectra, including analyses of strong excitonic couplings between chlorophylls and of interactions between (bacterio)chlorophylls and "optically dark" states of carotenoids in LHCs, including the major antenna complex of higher plants, LHC II.

Two-photon coherent control of a single quantum dot.

We report on two-photon coherent control of the biexciton state in single Stranski-Krastanov CdSe quantum dots. Clear interference patterns are observed at twice the optical frequency. The decay of the interference contrast is nonexponential and caused by a dynamical inhomogeneous broadening of the energy levels due to long-term fluctuations in the dot environment.