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Fluorescence Anisotropy

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Book cover Principles of Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Abstract

Upon excitation with polarized light, the emission from many samples is also polarized. The extent of polarization of the emission is described in terms of the anisotropy (r). Samples exhibiting nonzero anisotropies are said to display polarized emission. The origin of these phenomena is based on the existence of transition moments for absorption and emission which lie along specific directions within the fluorophore structure. In homogeneous solution the ground-state fluorophores are all randomly oriented. When exposed to polarized light, those fluorophores which have their absorption transition moments oriented along the electric vector of the incident light are preferentially excited. Hence, the excited-state population is not randomly oriented. Instead, there is a somewhat larger number of excited molecules having their transition moments oriented along the electric vector of the polarized exciting light.

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  1. University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Joseph R. Lakowicz

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Lakowicz, J.R. (1999). Fluorescence Anisotropy. In: Principles of Fluorescence Spectroscopy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3061-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3061-6_10

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