Coherence Dynamics in Photosynthesis: Protein Protection of Excitonic Coherence Export

@article{Fleming2007, abstract = {The role of quantum coherence in promoting the efficiency of the initial stages of photosynthesis is an open and intriguing question. We performed a two-color photon echo experiment on a bacterial reaction center that enabled direct visualization of the coherence dynamics in the reaction center. The data revealed long-lasting coherence between two electronic states that are formed by mixing of the bacteriopheophytin and accessory bacteriochlorophyll excited states. This coherence can only be explained by strong correlation between the protein-induced fluctuations in the transition energy of neighboring chromophores. Our results suggest that correlated protein environments preserve electronic coherence in photosynthetic complexes and allow the excitation to move coherently in space, enabling highly efficient energy harvesting and trapping in photosynthesis. 10.1126/science.1142188}, author = {Lee, Hohjai and Cheng, Yuan-Chung and Fleming, Graham R.}, citeulike-article-id = {3006654}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1142188}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/316/5830/1462}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17556580}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=17556580}, day = {8}, doi = {10.1126/science.1142188}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {coherence, photosynthesis}, month = {June}, number = {5830}, pages = {1462--1465}, posted-at = {2009-11-05 16:47:39}, priority = {2}, title = {Coherence Dynamics in Photosynthesis: Protein Protection of Excitonic Coherence}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1142188}, volume = {316}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - Fleming2007 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3006654 N2 - The role of quantum coherence in promoting the efficiency of the initial stages of photosynthesis is an open and intriguing question. We performed a two-color photon echo experiment on a bacterial reaction center that enabled direct visualization of the coherence dynamics in the reaction center. The data revealed long-lasting coherence between two electronic states that are formed by mixing of the bacteriopheophytin and accessory bacteriochlorophyll excited states. This coherence can only be explained by strong correlation between the protein-induced fluctuations in the transition energy of neighboring chromophores. Our results suggest that correlated protein environments preserve electronic coherence in photosynthetic complexes and allow the excitation to move coherently in space, enabling highly efficient energy harvesting and trapping in photosynthesis. 10.1126/science.1142188 IS - 5830 JF - Science EP - 1465 TI - Coherence Dynamics in Photosynthesis: Protein Protection of Excitonic Coherence VL - 316 SP - 1462 KW - coherence KW - photosynthesis AU - Lee, Hohjai AU - Cheng, Yuan-Chung AU - Fleming, Graham PY - 2007/06/08/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1142188 ER -