Femtosecond pump-repump depletion to sort biological particles from background urban particles

We investigated femtosecond pump-repump depletion excitation in biological fluorescent molecules (tryptophan and flavins) in solutions and in organic fluorescent interferents such as polycyclic hydrocarbons (naphthalene, diesel fuel). If the repump pulse induces in both flavins and Trp a depletion of the excited state, populated by the pump pulse, which leads to a drastic decrease of the fluorescence, such mechanism is ineffective in organic fluorescent interferents. The repump induced depletion is still observed for bacteria containing solutions. This opens interesting perspectives to discriminate biological from non-biological fluorescent particles in air.