Ever since the first publication of intracavity optogalvanic spectroscopy (ICOGS) in 2008, this novel technique for measuring the 14C/12C ratio in carbon dioxide has rendered considerable attention. As a result, there are currently at least five different research groups pursuing research on ICOGS. With a claimed limit of detection of 10–15 (14C/12C), i.e., in the same order as accelerator mass spectroscopy, achieved with a relatively inexpensive and uncomplicated table-top system, ICOGS has major scientific and commercial implications. However, during the past 5 years, no research group has been able to reproduce these results or present additional proof for ICOGS’s capability of unambiguous 14C detection, including the authors of the original publication. Starting in 2010, our group has set up a state-of-the-art ICOGS laboratory and has investigated the basic methodology of ICOGS in general and tried to reproduce the reported experiments in particular. We have not been able to reproduce the reported results concerning the optogalvanic signals dependence on 14C concentration and wavelength and, ultimately, not seen any evidence of the capability of ICOGS to unambiguously detect 14C at all. Instead, we have found indications that the reported results can be products of measurement uncertainties and mistakes. Furthermore, our results strongly indicate that the reported limit of detection is likely to be overestimated by at least 2 orders of magnitude, based on the results presented in the original publication. Hence, we conclude that the original reports on ICOGS cannot be confirmed and therefore must be in error.

ABSTRACT. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is by far the predominant technology deployed for radiocarbon tracer studies. Applications are widespread from archaeology to biological, environmental, and pharmaceutical sciences. In spite of its excellent performance AMS is expensive and complicated to operate. Consequently, alternative detection techniques for radiocarbon are of great interest, with the vision of a compact, user-friendly and inexpensive analytical method. Here we report on the use of intra-cavity optogalvanic spectroscopy (ICOGS) for measurements of the 14 C/ 12 C ratio. This new detection technique was developed by Murnick and co-workers (Murnick et al. 2008). In the infra-red (IR) region, CO 2 molecules have strong absorption coefficients. The IR-absorption lines are narrow in linewidth and shifted for different carbon isotopes. These properties can potentially be exploited to detect 14 CO 2 , 13 CO 2 or 12 CO 2 molecules unambiguously. In ICOGS, the sample is introduced as CO 2 gas, eliminating the graphitization step which is required in most AMS labs. In this paper, the status of the ICOGS setup in Uppsala is presented. The system is operational but not yet fully developed. Data are presented for initial results which illustrate the dependence of the optogalvanic signal on various parameters, such as background and plasma induced changes in the sample gas composition.

A new experimental and theoretical approach is presented for the quantitative determination and assignment of the two-photon absorption tensor of fluorophores dissolved in liquid solutions. Two linearly independent time-resolved fluorescence anisotropies and the two-photon polarization ratio were determined from experiments based on using the time-correlated single photon counting technique. The data were analyzed in a global manner under the assumption of prevailing diffusive molecular reorientations and when accounting for the influence of rapid unresolved reorientations. The method has been applied in fluorescence studies of perylene, two-photon excited at 800 nm. The analysis suggests that the two-photon transition is mediated via vibronic coupling including at least two vibrations of different symmetry, and also that the first singlet excited electronic state acts as a dominating intermediate state.

The excited-state symmetry and molecular reorientation of perylene, 1,7-diazaperylene, and 2,5,8,11-tetra- tert-butylperylene have been studied by different fluorescence depolarization experiments. The first excited electronic singlet state was reached through one-photon excitation (OPE) and two-photon excitation (TPE). A 400 and 800 nm femtosecond laser pulse was used for this purpose, and data were collected by means of the time-correlated single-photon counting technique. It is found that the rotational correlation times for each perylene derivative are very similar in the OPE and TPE depolarization experiments. For the determination of the two-photon absorption tensor, a recently described theoretical model has been applied (Ryderfors et al. J. Phys. Chem. A 2007, 111, 11531). It was found that the two-photon process can be described by a 2 x 2 absorption tensor for which the components are solvent dependent and exhibit mixed vibronic character. In the dipole approximation this is compatible with a parity-forbidden two-photon absorption into the first excited singlet state.