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Donatas Zigmantas. Portrait.

Donatas Zigmantas

Professor

Donatas Zigmantas. Portrait.

Carotenoid to chlorophyll energy transfer in the peridinin-chlorophyll-a-protein complex involves an intramolecular charge transfer state

Author

  • Donatas Zigmantas
  • RG Hiller
  • Villy Sundström
  • Tomas Polivka

Summary, in English

Carotenoids are, along with chlorophylls, crucial pigments involved in light-harvesting processes in photosynthetic organisms. Details of carotenoid to chlorophyll energy transfer mechanisms and their dependence on structural variability of carotenoids are as yet poorly understood. Here, we employ femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy to reveal energy transfer pathways in the peridinin-chlorophyll-a-protein (PCP) complex containing the highly substituted carotenoid peridinin, which includes an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) state in its excited state manifold. Extending the transient absorption spectra toward near-infrared region (600-1800 nm) allowed us to separate contributions from different low-lying excited states of peridinin. The results demonstrate a special light-harvesting strategy in the PCP complex that uses the ICT state of peridinin to enhance energy transfer efficiency.

Department/s

  • Chemical Physics

Publishing year

2002

Language

English

Pages

16760-16765

Publication/Series

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Volume

99

Issue

26

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

National Academy of Sciences

Topic

  • Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1091-6490