Work

Unraveling the Electronic Structure of Individual Photosynthetic Pigment-Protein Complexes

Year: 1999

Type: article

Abstract: Low-temperature single-molecule spectroscopic techniques were applied to a light-harvesting pigment-protein complex (LH2) from purple photosynthetic bacteria. The properties of the electronically excited states of the two circular assemblies (B800 and B850) of bacteriochlorophyll a (BChl a) pigment molecules in the individual complexes were revealed, without ensemble averaging. The results show that the excited states of the B800 ring of pigments are mainly localized on individual BChl a molecules. In contrast, the absorption of a photon by the B850 ring can be consistently described in terms of an excitation that is completely delocalized over the ring. This property may contribute to the high efficiency of energy transfer in these photosynthetic complexes.

Source: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.285.5426.400

Authors: Antoine M. van Oijen, Martijn Ketelaars, Jürgen Köhler, Thijs J. Aartsma, Jan Schmidt

Institution: Leiden University

Language: English

Topic: Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W2102054882

FWCI: 19.04

Cites: 16

Cited by: 531

Related to: 10