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Comment
. 2005 Jul 5;102(27):9433-4.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0504264102. Epub 2005 Jun 27.

Reversible molecular photoswitches: a key technology for nanoscience and fluorescence imaging

Markus Sauer  1
Affiliations
Comment

Reversible molecular photoswitches: a key technology for nanoscience and fluorescence imaging

Markus Sauer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Molecular photoswitches might be advantageously used for the study of protein trafficking in living cells and ultrahigh-density optical data storage at the single-molecule level. (a) Schematic of the operating mode of the reversible and highly reliable GFP-like photoswitch Dronpa. Upon excitation of the deprotonated form at 488 nm, it converts into the ground state of the photoswitched protonated form with a switching yield ΦSW of 3.2 × 10-4 (II). Excitation of the protonated form at 405 nm (III) results in excited state proton transfer to an intermediate state (IV), which converts into the deprotonated ground state with a switching yield ΦSW of 0.37 (V). (b) Using simultaneous illumination at 488 nm and applying a 30-ms pulse of 405-nm laser light every second, Habuchi et al. (10) achieved up to 170 photoswitching events at the single-molecule level with high reliability. (c) Fluorescence of tagged proteins can be erased by applying 488-nm light and switched on at specific locations by using 405-nm irradiation to directly visualize protein movement routes. (d) For nanoscale writing, a 405-nm laser beam could be focused to a diffraction-limited focal spot to induce photoswitching to the bright deprotonated form. A second 488-nm laser beam could switch the molecules at the outer parts of the focus back to the dim protonated form by using a phase mask.
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