High-cooling-efficiency cryogenic quadrupole ion trap and UV-UV hole burning spectroscopy of protonated tyrosine

Abstract

The cooling efficiency of a cryogenic three-dimensional quadrupole ion trap (QIT) is drastically improved by using copper electrodes instead of conventional stainless-steel ones. The temperature of trapped ions (protonated tyrosine TyrH+) was estimated based on the ultraviolet (UV) photo-dissociation spectra. The UV spectrum of TryH+ shows almost no hot bands, and thus the high cooling efficiency of the copper ion trap was proven. The temperature was also estimated by simulating the observed band contour in the UV spectra, which is determined by the population in the rotationally excited levels. From the simulations, the temperature of TryH+ was estimated to be ∼13K, while that in the stainless-steel QIT was 45–50K. In addition, to demonstrate the advantage of the copper QIT, UV-UV hole burning (HB) spectra, i.e. conformation-selected UV spectra, were measured. It was confirmed that four different conformers, A∼D, coexist in the ultra-cold protonated tyrosine. By comparing with the calculated Franck-Condon spectra, their structural assignments were discussed, including the orientation of the OH group.