Imaging of Tautomerism in a Single Molecule

Fluorescence imaging is used to visualize directly the transfer of two inner hydrogen atoms in single porphycene molecules. This reaction leads to a chemically equivalent but differently oriented structure and hence results in a rotation of the transition dipole moments. By probing single immobilized molecules with an azimuthally polarized laser beam in the focal spot of a confocal microscope we observe ring-like emission patterns, possible only for a chromophore with two nearly orthogonal transition dipole moments. Numerical simulations of the observed emission patterns yield a value of 72 degrees for the angle between the S0-S1 transition moments in the two tautomeric forms.