 |
Center for Nonlinear Studies |
NEW DATE AND TIME: Photosynthesis nourishes nearly all life on earth either directly or indirectly. In photosynthesis solar photons are converted into molecular excitations in the antenna pigment-protein complexes and the absorbed energy is transported to the reaction center pigment-protein complexes, where further conversion into chemical energy occurs. The light harvesting efficiency is significantly enhanced by excitonic interactions present in the antenna complexes, which not only broadens their energy spectrum, but also, by virtue of building up a suitable energetic ladder of exciton states, allows ultrafast energy transfer with minimal losses. Due to the established strong conformational disorder as well as strong exciton-phonon interaction, the antenna excitons have been proposed to localize, eventually leading to formation of self-trapped excitons or, more generally, of exciton polarons. Due to the established strong coupling of excitons with environmental phonons as well as a strong conformational disorder, the antenna excitons should be classified as localized exciton polarons. In this talk, I present a short outline of the ideas and experiments toward this conclusion. Current status of the field and the remaining challenges will be discussed based on some fairly recent developments of experiment and modelling.
Host: Sergei Tretiak