Quantum-coherent dynamics of electronic energy transfer

Light-harvesting in photosynthesis involves amplification and regulation of light capture by reaction centers using energy transfer from antenna proteins. The key biophysical processes at play have been discovered by investigating electronic energy transfer in a variety of photosynthetic proteins. Recent research that provides evidence that these dynamics can involve quantum-coherence, even at ambient temperature conditions. Our experiments, using two-dimensional photon echo spectroscopy, have revealed that in light-harvesting antenna proteins isolated from a family of marine cryptophyte algae, quantum-coherence effectively 'wires' together the light-absorbing molecules in order to facilitate efficient long-range energy transfer. New results will be reported where we have used quantum beat lineshapes, to reveal hidden energy correlations in algal light-harvesting protein PE545 that, in turn, give us insights into how to think about the energy transfer dynamics.

| Announcement of Laureates 2011 |