title: Probing membrane potential with nonlinear optics.
abstract: The nonlinear optical phenomenon of second harmonic generation is shown to have intrinsic sensitivity to the voltage across a biological membrane. Our results demonstrate that this second order nonlinear optical process can be used to monitor membrane voltage with excellent signal to noise and other crucial advantages. These advantages suggest extensive use of this novel approach as an important new tool in elucidating membrane potential changes in biological systems. For this first demonstration of the effect we use a chiral styryl dye which exhibits gigantic second harmonic signals. Possible mechanisms of the voltage dependence of the second harmonic signal are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Applied Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bouevitch
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Pinevsky
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Wuskell
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Loew
mesh_terms: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008433:Mathematics; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D008954:Models, Biological; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011726:Pyridinium Compounds; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D011726:Pyridinium Compounds; C050019:1-(3-sulfonatopropyl)-4-(beta)(2-(di-n-butylamino)-6-naphthylvinyl)pyridinium betaine