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National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 46(105), p. 17642-17647, 2008

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0802376105

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An artificial molecular switch that mimics the visual pigment and completes its photocycle in picoseconds

Journal article published in 2008 by Adalgisa Sinicropi, Elena Martin, M. Ryasantsev, Mikhail Ryazantsev ORCID, Jan Helbing, Julien Briand, Divya Sharma, Jérémie Léonard, Stefan Haacke ORCID, A. Canizzo, Andrea Cannizzo ORCID, Majed Chergui, Vinicio Zanirato, Stefania Fusi, Santoro Fabrizio and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Single molecules that act as light-energy transducers (e.g., converting the energy of a photon into atomic-level mechanical motion) are examples of minimal molecular devices. Here, we focus on a molecular switch designed by merging a conformationally locked diarylidene skeleton with a retinal-like Schiff base and capable of mimicking, in solution, different aspects of the transduction of the visual pigment Rhodopsin. Complementary ab initio multiconfigurational quantum chemistry-based computations and time-resolved spectroscopy are used to follow the light-induced isomerization of the switch in methanol. The results show that, similar to rhodopsin, the isomerization occurs on a 0.3-ps time scale and is followed by <10-ps cooling and solvation. The entire (2-photon-powered) switch cycle was traced by following the evolution of its infrared spectrum. These measurements indicate that a full cycle can be completed within 20 ps.