Department of Plant & Environmental Sciences, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
Applied Physics Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
Trends Plant Sci. 2018 Jun;23(6):497-506. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2018.03.007. Epub 2018 Apr 3.
Quantum mechanics diverges from the classical description of our world when very small scales or very fast processes are involved. Unlike classical mechanics, quantum effects cannot be easily related to our everyday experience and are often counterintuitive to us. Nevertheless, the dimensions and time scales of the photosynthetic energy transfer processes puts them close to the quantum/classical border, bringing them into the range of measurable quantum effects. Here we review recent advances in the field and suggest that photosynthetic processes can take advantage of the sensitivity of quantum effects to the environmental 'noise' as means of tuning exciton energy transfer efficiency. If true, this design principle could be a base for 'nontrivial' coherent wave property nano-devices.
当涉及到非常小的尺度或非常快的过程时，量子力学与我们对世界的经典描述分道扬镳。与经典力学不同，量子效应不容易与我们的日常经验联系起来，而且常常与我们的直觉相悖。然而，光合作用能量转移过程的维度和时间尺度使它们接近量子/经典边界，使它们进入可测量的量子效应范围。在这里，我们回顾了该领域的最新进展，并提出光合作用过程可以利用量子效应对环境“噪声”的敏感性作为调节激子能量转移效率的手段。如果这是真的，那么这个设计原则可以成为“非平凡”相干波性质纳器件的基础。
