Turning the challenge of quantum biology on its head
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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date
2019-01-01
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Language
en
Pages
15
57-71
57-71
Series
Faraday Discussions, Volume 216
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.Description
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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
