Analysis and Control of Ultrafast Energy Flow in Polyenic Biochromophores


Tiago Buckup and Marcus Motzkus

Physikalisch-Chemisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls Universität, Im Neuenheimer Feld 229, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany

e-mail: marcus.motzkus@pci.uni-heidelberg.de

URL: http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/fakultaeten/chemgeo/pci/motzkus/

 

Understanding ultrafast energy flow in the excited state of biological chromophores is an important step in the technological utilization of photosynthesis. The efficiency of the transformation of light into chemical energy is mainly determined by the competition between the ultrafast energy loss and reactive channels. In this regard, intramolecular deactivation processes in the excited reactive states of donor molecules are not desirable and should be identified and possibly suppressed for an efficient photosynthesis.[1] Using different nonlinear time-resolved spectroscopic techniques it is possible to identify such deactivation and reactive channels in bio-molecules e.g. dark states or vibrational modes which are responsible for the coupling between different electronic states. [2-5]