Red Edge Effects

Alexander P. Demchenko

Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, Kiev 01030, Ukraine.

The Red Edge effects are the series of wavelength-selective phenomena that involve the spectral shifts, quenching, anisotropy and lifetimes. Being modulated by the energy of excitation quanta they can be observed both in fluorescence and phosphorescence and produce impact on different excited-state reactions, including the transfer of excitation energy. They are commonly observed in the systems displaying broader distribution of luminophore interaction energy with its environment and in the conditions restricting molecular mobility (polymer matrices, low-temperature glasses, protein molecules, etc.). These effects are consistently explained based on accounting for statistical distribution of fluorescence emitters on their interaction energy with the environment and on the spectral selection of species, the excitation energies of which deviate from mean values. Demonstrating static or dynamic inhomogeneous broading of spectra these phenomena allowed forming a new vision of structural disorder and molecular dynamics in condensed media.