Related papers: Disentangling electronic and vibrational coherence…
Photosynthetic organisms use networks of chromophores to absorb sunlight and deliver the energy to reaction centres, where charge separation triggers a cascade of chemical steps to store the energy. We present a detailed model of the…
Until recently it was believed that photosynthesis, a fundamental process for life on earth, could be fully understood with semi-classical models. However, puzzling quantum phenomena have been observed in several photosynthetic…
The light-harvesting efficiency of a photoactive molecular complex is largely determined by the properties of its electronic quantum states. Those, in turn, are influenced by molecular vibrational states of the nuclear degrees of freedom.…
The physical basis for observed long-lived electronic coherence in photosynthetic light-harvesting systems is identified using an analytically soluble model. Three physical features are found to be responsible for their long coherence…
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…
In natural light harvesting systems, the sequential quantum events of photon absorption by specialized biological antenna complexes, charge separation, exciton formation and energy transfer to localized reaction centers culminates in the…
Photosynthetic antenna complexes are responsible for absorbing energy from sunlight and transmitting it to remote locations where it can be stored. Recent experiments have found that this process involves long-lived quantum coherence…
The energy transfer processes and coherent phenomena in the fucoxanthin-chlorophyll protein complex, which is responsible for the light harvesting function in marine algae diatoms, were investigated at 77 K by using two-dimensional…
Research into the efficiency of photosynthetic light harvesting has focused on two factors: (1) entanglement of chromophores, and (2) environmental noise. While chromophores are conjugated $\pi$-bonding molecules with strongly correlated…
Recent observations of coherence in photosynthetic complexes have led to the question of whether quantum effects can occur in vivo, not under femtosecond laser pulses but in incoherent sunlight and at steady state, and, if so, whether the…
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,…
Recent observations of beating signals in the excitation energy transfer dynamics of photosynthetic complexes have been interpreted as evidence for sustained coherences that are sufficiently long-lived for energy transport and coherence to…
Quantum coherence is highly involved in photochemical functioning of complex molecular systems. Co-existence and intermixing of electronic and/or vibrational coherences, while never unambiguously identified experimentally, has been proposed…
Photosynthetic light harvesting provides a natural blueprint for bioengineered and biomimetic solar energy and light detection technologies. Recent evidence suggests some individual light harvesting protein complexes (LHCs) and LHC subunits…
In this paper, we present a theoretical description to the quantum coherence and decoherence phenomena of energy transfer in photosynthesis observed in a recent experiment [see Science 316, 1462 (2007)]. As a successive two-color laser…
The idea that excitonic state (electronic) coherences are of fundamental importance to natural photosynthesis gained popularity when, a decade ago, slowly dephasing quantum beats were observed in the two-dimensional electronic spectra of…
The influence of fast vibrations on energy transfer and conversion in natural molecular aggregates is an issue of central interest. This article shows the important role of high-energy quantized vibrations and their non-equilibrium dynamics…
The electronic excitation population and coherence dynamics in the chromophores of the photosynthetic light harvesting complex 2 (LH2) B850 ring from purple bacteria (Rhodopseudomonas acidophila) have been studied theoretically at both…
Identifying signatures of quantum coherent behaviour in photoactive systems that are maintained in stationary states away from thermal equilibrium is an open problem of wide interest in a variety of physical scenarios, including single…
We examine computational techniques and methodologies currently in use to explore electronic excitation energy transfer in the context of light-harvesting complexes in photosynthetic antenna systems, and comment on some new insights into…