Separation of the rotational contribution in fluorescence correlation experiments

Abstract

The theory of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy is reexamined with the aim of separating the contribution of rotational diffusion. Under constant excitation, fluorescence correlation experiments are characterized by three polarizations: one of the incident beam and two of the two photon detectors. A set of experiments of different polarizations is proposed for study. From the results of the experiments the isotropic factor of the fluorescence intensity correlation functions can be determined, which is independent of the rotational motion of the sample molecule. This function can be used to represent each fluorescence intensity correlation function as the product of the isotropic and the rotational factors. The theory is illustrated by an experiment in which rotational diffusion of porcine pancreatic lipase labeled with Texas Red was observed Texas Red is a label that allows precise fluorescence correlation experiments even in the nanosecond time range.