Published in

American Chemical Society, Journal of Physical Chemistry B (Soft Condensed Matter and Biophysical Chemistry), 25(116), p. 7449-7454, 2012

DOI: 10.1021/jp304649c

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Origin of Long-Lived Coherences in Light-Harvesting Complexes

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
  • Must obtain written permission from Editor
  • Must not violate ACS ethical Guidelines
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
  • Must obtain written permission from Editor
  • Must not violate ACS ethical Guidelines
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

A vibronic exciton model is applied to explain the long-lived oscillatory features in the two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectra of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex. Using experimentally determined parameters and uncorrelated site energy fluctuations, the model predicts oscillations with dephasing times of 1.3 ps at 77 K, which is in a good agreement with the experimental results. These long-lived oscillations originate from the coherent superposition of vibronic exciton states with dominant contributions from vibrational excitations on the same pigment. The oscillations obtain a large amplitude due to excitonic intensity borrowing, which gives transitions with strong vibronic character a significant intensity despite the small Huang-Rhys factor. Purely electronic coherences are found to decay on a 200 fs time scale.