Turning the challenge of quantum biology on its head: Biological control of quantum optical systems

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

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en

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15

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Faraday Discussions, Volume 216, pp. 57-71

Abstract

When light-harvesting complex II (LHCII), isolated from spinach, is adsorbed onto arrays of gold nanostructures formed by interferometric lithography, a pronounced splitting of the plasmon band is observed that is attributable to strong coupling of the localised surface plasmon resonance to excitons in the pigment-protein complex. The system is modelled as coupled harmonic oscillators, yielding an exciton energy of 2.24 ± 0.02 eV. Analysis of dispersion curves yields a Rabi energy of 0.25 eV. Extinction spectra of the strongly coupled system yield a resonance at 1.43 eV that varies as a function of the density of nanostructures in the array. The enhanced intensity of this feature is attributed to strong plasmon-exciton coupling. Comparison of data for a large number of light-harvesting complexes indicates that by control of the protein structure and/or pigment compliment it is possible to manipulate the strength of plasmon-exciton coupling. In strongly coupled systems, ultra-fast exchange of energy occurs between pigment molecules: coherent coupling between non-local excitons can be manipulated via selection of the protein structure enabling the observation of transitions that are not seen in the weak coupling regime. Synthetic biology thus provides a means to control quantum-optical interactions in the strong coupling regime.

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Lishchuk, A, Vasilev, C, Johnson, M P, Hunter, C N, Törmä, P & Leggett, G J 2019, 'Turning the challenge of quantum biology on its head : Biological control of quantum optical systems', Faraday Discussions, vol. 216, pp. 57-71. https://doi.org/10.1039/c8fd00241j