J Phys Chem B. 2009 Dec 24;113(51):16291-5. doi: 10.1021/jp908300c.
The near-unity efficiency of energy transfer in photosynthesis makes photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes a promising avenue for developing new renewable energy technologies. Knowledge of the energy landscape of these complexes is essential in understanding their function, but its experimental determination has proven elusive. Here, the observation of quantum coherence using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy is employed to directly measure the 14 lowest electronic energy levels in light-harvesting complex II (LHCII), the most abundant antenna complex in plants containing approximately 50% of the world's chlorophyll. We observe that the electronically excited states are relatively evenly distributed, highlighting an important design principle of photosynthetic complexes that explains the observed ultrafast intracomplex energy transfer in LHCII.
光合作用中能量转移的近于 100%的效率使得光合光捕获复合物成为开发新型可再生能源技术的一个很有前途的途径。了解这些复合物的能量景观对于理解它们的功能至关重要，但实际上很难对其进行实验测定。在这里，使用二维电子光谱学来观察量子相干性，直接测量了光捕获复合物 II (LHCII)中的 14 个最低电子能级，LHCII 是植物中最丰富的天线复合物，约占世界叶绿素的 50%。我们观察到电子激发态相对均匀地分布，突出了光合作用复合物的一个重要设计原则，该原则解释了 LHCII 中观察到的超快的复合物内能量转移。
