Related papers: Multiscale photosynthetic exciton transfer
Coherence-enhanced light harvesting has not been directly observed experimentally, despite theoretical evidence that coherence can significantly enhance light-harvesting performance. The main experimental obstacle has been the difficulty in…
Photosynthesis, the process by which energy from sunlight drives cellular metabolism, relies on a unique organization of light-harvesting and reaction center complexes. Recently, the organization of light-harvesting LH2 complexes and…
Photosynthesis powers life on our planet. The basic photosynthetic architecture comprises antenna complexes to harvest solar energy and reaction centers to convert the energy into a stable charge separated state. In oxygenic photosynthesis,…
In photosynthetic organisms, the energy of light during illumination is absorbed by the antenna complexes, which is transmitted by excitons and is either absorbed by the reaction centers (RCs), which have been closed in this way, or emitted…
A remarkable amount of theoretical research has been carried out to elucidate the physical origins of the recently observed long-lived quantum coherence in the electronic energy transfer process in biological photosynthetic systems.…
The early steps of photosynthesis involve the photo-excitation of reaction centres (RCs) and light-harvesting (LH) units. Here, we show that the --historically overlooked-- excitonic delocalisation across RC and LH pigments results in a…
Multi-heme cytochromes (MHC) are fascinating proteins used by bacterial organisms to shuttle electrons within and between their cells. When placed in a solid state electronic junction, they support temperature-independent currents over…
The effectiveness of molecular-based light harvesting relies on transport of optical excitations, excitons, to charg-transfer sites. Measuring exciton migration has, however, been challenging because of the mismatch between nanoscale…
The photosynthetic apparatus of plants and bacteria combine atomically precise pigment-protein complexes with dynamic membrane architectures to control energy transfer on the 10-100 nm length scales. Recently, synthetic materials have…
We investigate how optical second-order cross correlations witness the quantum features of a prototype donor-acceptor light-harvesting unit. By considering a pair of detuned two-level emitters electronically coupled and incoherently driven…
Controlled non-local energy and coherence transfer enables light harvesting in photosynthesis and non-local logical operations in quantum computing. The most relevant mechanism of coherent coupling of distant qubits is coupling via the…
The recently suggested possibility that weak vibronic transitions can be excitonically enhanced in light-harvesting complexes is studied in detail. A vibronic exciton dimer model which includes ground state vibrations is investigated using…
Rate equations are used to model spectroscopic observation of incoherent energy transfer in light-harvesting antenna systems based upon known structures. A two-parameter two-dimensional model is proposed. The transfer rates obtained, by…
Aggregates of light harvesting 2 (LH2) complexes form the major exciton-relaying domain in the photosynthetic unit of purple bacteria. Application of a generalized master equation to pairs of the B850 units of LH2 complexes, where excitons…
Recent ultrafast optical experiments show that excitons in large biological light-harvesting complexes are coupled to molecular vibration modes. These high-frequency vibrations will not only affect the optical response, but also drive the…
Giant strides in ultrashort laser pulse technology have enabled real-time observation of dynamical processes in complex molecular systems. Specifically, the discovery of oscillatory transients in the two-dimensional electronic spectra of…
A vibronic exciton model is developed to investigate the origin of long lived coherences in light-harvesting complexes. Using experimentally determined parameters and uncorrelated site energy fluctuations, the model predicts oscillations in…
We report direct evidence for macroscopic coherence in a condensate of dark dipolar excitons in coupled quantum wells and show that its formation follows a non-equilibrium, driven-dissipative mechanism. The condensation transition is…
The possibility to store optical information is important for classical and quantum communication. Atoms or ions as well as color centers in crystals offer suitable two-level systems for absorbing incoming photons. To obtain a reliable…
Efficient energy transport is highly desirable for organic semiconductor (OSC) devices such as photovoltaics, photodetectors, and photocatalytic systems. However, photo-generated excitons in OSC films mostly occupy highly localized states…