Abstract

Seawater has been irradiated using a train of $\mathrm{70}\mathrm{ns}$ flashes from a $440\mathrm{nm}$ laser source. This wavelength is on resonance with the blue absorption peak of Chlorophyll pigment associated with the photosystem of in vitro phytoplankton. The resulting fluorescence at $685\mathrm{nm}$ is instantaneously recorded during each laser pulse using a streak camera. Delayed fluorescence is observed, yielding clues about initiation of the photosynthetic process on a nanosecond time scale. Further data processing allows for determination of the functional absorption cross section, found to be $0.0095{\AA }^2$, which is the first reporting of this number for in vitro phytoplankton. Unlike other flash-pump studies of Chlorophyll, using a LED or flashlamp-based sources, the short laser pulse used here does not reveal any pulse-to-pulse hysteresis (i.e., variable fluorescence), indicating that the laser pulses used here are not able to drive the photosynthetic process to completion. This is attributed to competition from a back reaction between the photoexcited photosystem II and the intermediate electron acceptor. The significance of this work as a new type of deployable ocean fluorimeter is discussed, and it is believed the apparatus will have applications in thin-layer phytoplankton research.

© 2008 Optical Society of America

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