Emission and polarization spectrometer for biophysical spectroscopy

Abstract

We have constructed a spectrometer which, using well established techniques, measures both fluorescence and circular dichroism (natural and magnetic) as well as several other parameters of interest in biophysical spectroscopy. This combination is feasible since the various measurements, aside from sharing many optical components, can all use a lock‐in amplifier to process electronic signals. Although fluorescence and circular dichroism provide greatly different information about the material under investigation, from the standpoint of instrumentation they are very similar. Combining several functions in a single spectrometer has the advantages of economy and flexibility.