Fluorescence Anisotropy: Theory and Applications of Rotational Depolarization

Abstract

This review article presents the principal problems of fluorescence emission anisotropy in rigid and liquid isotropic solutions, as well as in partially ordered fluid systems (membranes), and indicates possible practical uses of these phenomena in physicochemical and biophysical investigations. It has been shown that fluorescence anisotropy provides a quantity of information on photophysical processes that occur in complex molecules. Thus, conclusions can be drawn with respect to molecular structure and properties, e.g., shapes, dimensions and conformational changes, electric dipole moments in excited states, relaxation of local temperature of excited molecules, as well as on the structure and internal dynamics of molecular systems.

Key Words:

• Brownian dynamics
• fluorescence anisotropy
• fluorescence intensity decay
• inertial effect
• membranes
• polarized fluorescence
• rotational correlation time
• rotational depolarization
• rotational relaxation
• two-photon excitation.