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Photon statistics and dynamics of fluorescence resonance energy transfer
Andrew J Berglund1, Andrew C Doherty, Hideo Mabuchi
1Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics 12-33, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91125, USA. berglund@caltech.edu
Abstract:
We report high time-resolution measurements of photon statistics from pairs of dye molecules coupled by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). In addition to quantum-optical photon antibunching, we observe photon bunching on a time scale of several nanoseconds. We show by numerical simulation that configuration fluctuations in the coupled fluorophore system could account for minor deviations of our data from predictions of basic Förster theory. With further characterization we believe that FRET photon statistics could provide a unique tool for studying DNA mechanics on time scales from 10(-9)-10(-3) s.