TEMPORAL and SPECTRAL SEPARATION OF SINGLET OXYGEN LUMINESCENCE FROM NEAR INFRARED EMITTING PHOTOSENSITIZERS

Abstract— The luminescence emission of singlet molecular oxygen (¹O₂) generated by bacteriopheophytin a, a near-infrared-emitting photosensitizer, was measured using a new high-sensitivity spectrometer system for time- and spectral-resolved near-infrared detection. The instrument uses a low energy pulsed nitrogen laser (40 μJ per pulse) to excite the photosensitizer optically and is capable of a time resolution of 40 ns per data point and an instrument response function of 350 ns FWHM (full width at half maximum). The use of a low-energy (and relatively low cost) source provides sufficient system sensitivity to measure time-resolved spectra in the near infrared with high spectral and temporal resolution. The simultaneous detection, with high accuracy and repeatability, of both the temporal and spectral dependence of the photoprocesses of ¹O₂ generation, especially with near-infrared-emitting photosensitizers, may further stimulate the current intensive investigations concerning the activity of ¹O₂ to biomolecules.