%0 Journal Article %@ 1948-7185 %A Greenwood, JB %A Miles, J %A De Camillis, S %A Mulholland, P %A Zhang, L %A Parkes, MA %A Hailes, HC %A Fielding, HH %D 2014 %F discovery:1456387 %J JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS %N 20 %P 3588 - 3592 %T Resonantly Enhanced Multiphoton Ionization Spectrum of the Neutral Green Fluorescent Protein Chromophore %U https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1456387/ %V 5 %X The photophysics of the green fluorescent protein is governed by the electronic structure of the chromophore at the heart of its β-barrel protein structure. We present the first two-color, resonance-enhanced, multiphoton ionization spectrum of the isolated neutral chromophore in vacuo with supporting electronic structure calculations. We find the absorption maximum to be 3.65 ± 0.05 eV (340 ± 5 nm), which is blue-shifted by 0.5 eV (55 nm) from the absorption maximum of the protein in its neutral form. Our results show that interactions between the chromophore and the protein have a significant influence on the electronic structure of the neutral chromophore during photoabsorption and provide a benchmark for the rational design of novel chromophores as fluorescent markers or photomanipulators. %Z This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.