Single molecule spectroscopy to probe competitive fluorescence resonance energy transfer pathways in bichromophoric synthetic systems

Using single molecule fluorescence spectroscopy we have investigated fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) occurring between two peryleneimide (PI) chromophores in a series of synthetic systems: PI end-capped fluorene trimers, hexamers and polymers for which the interchromophoric distance vary from 3.4 to 5.9 and 42 nm, respectively. By monitoring in parallel the fluorescence intensity and the number of independent emitting chromophores from each molecule, we could discriminate between competitive Förster-type energy transfer processes such as energy hopping, singlet-singlet annihilation and singlet-triplet annihilation for the PI end-capped fluorine compounds. Due to different energy transfer efficiencies, variations in the interchromophoric distance enable switching between these processes. The single molecule fluorescence data reported here suggest that similar energy transfer pathways have to be considered in the analysis of single molecule trajectories of donor/acceptor pairs, as well as in the case of more complex systems like natural multichromophoric systems, such as light harvesting antennas or oligomeric fluorescent proteins.status: publishe