화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.119, No.34, 9043-9050, 2015
Optical Signatures of Quantum Delocalization over Extended Domains in Photosynthetic Membranes
The prospect of coherent dynamics and excitonic delocalization across several light-harvesting structures in photosynthetic membranes is of considerable interest, but challenging to explore experimentally. Here we demonstrate theoretically that the excitonic delocalization across extended domains involving several light-harvesting complexes can lead to unambiguous signatures in the optical response, specifically, linear absorption spectra. We characterize, under experimentally established conditions of molecular assembly and protein-induced inhomogeneities, the optical absorption in these arrays from polarized and unpolarized excitation, and demonstrate that it can be used as a diagnostic tool to determine the resonance coupling between iso-energetic light-harvesting structures. The knowledge of these couplings would then provide further insight into the dynamical properties of transfer, such as facilitating the accurate determination of Forster rates.