Effects Induced in Complex Biological Systems by High Density Green Photons
It is known that light interaction with matter may generate an optical force, which may produce modifications at the physical and chemical level. The basic technique of the field uses strongly focused laser beams that trap small objects and manipulate loc
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Abstract It is known that light interaction with matter may generate an optical force, which may produce modifications at the physical and chemical level. The basic technique of the field uses strongly focused laser beams that trap small objects and manipulate local structures. In our work we use irradiation of complex biological molecules with high density green photons, which may induce electric dipoles by polarization effects. The resulting dipolar interaction may lead to organized structures like molecular aggregates and microparticles. We present experimental evidence of such an optical manipulation on long alkanes chains and two specific enzymes. A preliminary physical model is suggested for acounting of these specific interaction forces.
S. Comorosan () Interdisciplinary Research Group, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected] S. Polosan National Institute of Material Physics, Magurele, Romania e-mail: [email protected] M. Apostol Department of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Nuclear Physics, Magurele, Romania, e-mail: [email protected] I. Popescu E. Ionescu Department of Basic Research, Fundeni Institute, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] I. Farcasanu Department of Chemistry, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected] L. Paslaru Department of Biochemistry, University of Medicine, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected] R. Carretero-González et al. (eds.), Localized Excitations in Nonlinear Complex Systems, Nonlinear Systems and Complexity 7, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02057-0__22, © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
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1 Introduction This work deals with a specific phenomenology, occurring in a highlighted domain of physical reality, termed mesoscopia. Mesoscopic systems encompass length scales from nanometers to hundreds of microns, force scales from femto-tonanonewtons and time scales from microseconds up. This is the realm of basic biological processes, cellular respiration, signaling and metabolism. In physics this is the puzzling province of the interface between classical and quantum mechanics, i.e. the macroscopic quantum behavior, rendered famous by the old Wigner [1] impossible conjecture. Recently, great progress in optical manipulation [2] offers new avenues for basic and applied research in this field. The basic technique, known as optical tweezer, was introduced by Ashkin [3]. An optical tweezer represents a strongly focused beam of light that may trap small objects, smaller or much larger than the light wavelength. The mechanism is rather straightforward: small objects develop electric dipole moments generated by the light electric field, which means to draw up intensity gradients. These optical forces may then compete with the radiation pressure generated by the absorbed momentum from the beam’s photons. Stable trapping, as well as the manipulation of the local structures, depend on a balance with the axial gradient for
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