Inside Cover: Red Blood Cells Polarize Green Laser Light Revealing Hemoglobin′s Enhanced Non-Fundamental Raman Modes (ChemPhysChem 18/2014)

Red Blood Cells Polarize Green Laser Light Revealing Hemoglobin's Enhanced Non-Fundamental Raman Modes

In general, the first overtone modes produce weak bands that appear at approximately twice the wavenumber value of the fundamental transitions in vibrational spectra. Here, we report the existence of a series of enhanced non-fundamental bands in resonance Raman (RR) spectra recorded for hemoglobin (Hb) inside the highly concentrated heme environment of the red blood cell (RBC) by exciting with a 514.5 nm laser line. Such bands are most intense when detecting parallel-polarized light. The enhancement is explained through excitonic theory invoking a type C scattering mechanism and bands have been assigned to overtone and combination bands based on symmetry arguments and polarization measureme…