Calibration and quality assurance procedures at the far UV linear and circular dichroism experimental station DISCO

Abstract

Circular and Linear dichroism spectroscopy used in biophysics, are both differential absorption techniques, which explore the chirality of complex macromolecular structures such as proteins and nucleic acids in solution. In the past two decades synchrotron radiation facilities throughout the world, have accommodated circular dichroism (SRCD) experiments. These intense VUV light sources have greatly expanded the wavelength range exploitable (down to 120nm) at high constant photon flux improving signal to noise ratio and data acquisition speed. Here we present the calibration procedure for the circular and linear dichroism experiments explored on the SRCD beam line DISCO at the synchrotron SOLEIL as well as the specially designed automated sample rotation chamber.