https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2010-00147-y
IR laser desorption of oligonucleotides
A novel gas phase target for radiation damage studies
1
Centre for Plasma Physics, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NN, N. Ireland, UK
2
Medical Biology Centre, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT9 7BL, N. Ireland, UK
3
Andor Technology plc., 7 Millennium Way, Springvale Business Park, Belfast, BT12 7AL, N. Ireland, UK
Corresponding author: a tmerrigan01@qub.ac.uk
Received:
15
December
2009
Revised:
19
April
2010
Published online:
26
May
2010
The desorption of oligonucleotides by 3 m laser irradiation has been studied by laser induced fluorescence imaging of the resulting gas phase plumes. Fitting of the plume data has been achieved by using a modified Maxwell Boltzmann distribution which incorporates a range of stream velocities. Spatial density profiles, velocities and temperature variation have been determined from these fits indicating that the oligonucleotide plume only achieves a partial thermal relaxation. This laser desorption technique may provide a means of overcoming the limited mass range of gas phase biomolecules available from thermal evaporation techniques.
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2010