Origin of the doublet at 1360 and 1340 cm^-1 in the Raman spectra of tryptophan and related compounds

Raman spectra of indole, skatole, tryptophan and its derivatives including C₄-monodeuterated tryptophan were studied with special attention to the origin of the band around 1350 cm^-1. The band is observed as a doublet or triplet depending on the compound and solvent, which was ascribed to Fermi resonance between one fundamental and one or two combination bands of the out-of-plane bending vibrations. Removal of the interaction is seen for C₄D-tryptophan and some solutions of skatole. The assignments of the component vibrations were made based on the shifts in frequencies upon C₄-deuteration. In tryptophan derivatives the doublet (or triplet) peaks exhibit steep changes in relative intensity at the pK_a points of the dissociable groups, which is ascribed as arising from slight frequency shifts of a pK_a-sensitive component vibration. Relations between the relative intensity and environment of indole were obtained and their possible applicability to the analyses of Raman spectra of proteins is suggested.