Abstract
The electronic structure of a biochromophore (i.e., light absorber) is strongly perturbed by its environment, e.g., water or amino acid residues within protein pockets. To reveal the intrinsic electronic properties, it is therefore necessary to study isolated molecules in vacuo. Many biochromophores are ionic in their natural environment, which renders experiments complicated as it is not possible to produce enough absorbing species for traditional light transmission spectroscopy. In Aarhus we have developed state-of-the-art apparatus to record gas-phase absorption spectra. Some recent results for porphyrin and metalloporphyrin ions are presented, including both electronic ground state ions and electronically excited ions. Fragmentation channels are found from quickly switching the ring voltages after photoexcitation to store particular daughter ions.
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