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Tönu Pullerits. Portrait.

Tönu Pullerits

Professor

Tönu Pullerits. Portrait.

Ultrafast carotenoid band shifts probe structure and dynamics in photosynthetic antenna complexes

Author

  • J. L. Herek
  • T. Polívka
  • T. Pullerits
  • G. J. S. Fowler
  • C. N. Hunter
  • V. Sundström

Summary, in English

We report observations of ultrafast carotenoid band shifts correlated with energy transfer dynamics between bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) molecules within the peripheral light-harvesting complex (LH2) from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Direct excitation of the bacteriochlorophyll Q(y) bands yielded distinct changes in the carotenoid S2 absorption from 430 to 530 nm. Transient absorption spectra and kinetics were measured in a femtosecond pump-probe experiment, revealing the ultrafast carotenoid response to excited BChl pigments. These data are an indication of a new property of carotenoids that is manifested as a unique ability to detect and report changes in their immediate environment, thereby serving as sensitive probes of local structure and dynamics.

Department/s

  • Chemical Physics

Publishing year

1998-05-19

Language

English

Pages

7057-7061

Publication/Series

Biochemistry

Volume

37

Issue

20

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

The American Chemical Society (ACS)

Topic

  • Biochemistry

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0006-2960