Accurate and quick calibration method for polarization-modulation spectroscopy using an ac-modulated polarizing undulator.

An accurate calibration method in which an ac-modulated polarizing undulator is used for polarization modulation spectroscopy such as circular dichroism (CD) and linear dichroism (LD) has been proposed and successfully applied to vacuum ultraviolet (vuv) CD and LD spectra measured at beamline BL-5B in the electron storage ring, TERAS, at AIST. This calibration method employs an undulator-modulation spectroscopic method with a multireflection polarimeter, and it uses electronic and optical elements identical to those used for the CD and LD measurements. This method regards the polarimeter as a standard sample for the CD and LD measurements in the vuv region in which a standard sample has not yet been established. The calibration factors for the CD and LD spectra are obtained over a wide range of wavelengths, from 120 to 230 nm, at TERAS BL-5B. The calibrated CD and LD spectra measured at TERAS exhibit good agreement with the standard spectra for wavelengths greater than 170 nm; the mean differences between the standard and calibrated CD and LD spectra are approximately 7% and 4%, respectively. This method enables a remarkable reduction in the experimental time, from approximately 1 h to less than 10 min that is sufficient to observe the storage-ring current dependence of the calibration factors. This method can be applied to the calibration of vuv-CD spectra measured using a conventional photoelastic modulator and for performing an accurate analysis of protein secondary structures.