Rotation-translation device for condensed-phase spectroscopywith small sample volumes

We present and characterize an experimental device for optical spectroscopy with small sample volumes contained in a thin film. Employing rotational and translational motion, the sample transport speeds are high enough to offer a new sample volume for each interaction in time-resolved spectroscopy experiments working with a 1 kHz repetition rate. This is especially suited for ultrafast femtosecond spectroscopy such as transient absorption spectroscopy or fluorescence upconversion. To reduce photodegradation and effects from local thermal heating, a large sample area is scanned in contrast to conventional devices with either only rotation or translation movements. For characterization of the setup, transient absorption experiments are carried out using the rotation-translation device and a conventional flow-cell setup, which exhibit similar signal-to-noise ratio in the two cases. The effects of photodegradation and diffusion are also investigated, demonstrating the suitability of the device for time-resolved spectroscopic experiments. The transient absorption data show that the setup is well suited for biomolecular samples, which are often only available in small amounts and are very sensitive to thermal heating.