2013/11/25 by P. Nalbach, Nalbach, P., C. A. Mujica‐Martínez +3
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #Atomic and Molecular Clusters (physics.atm-clus) #Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Photochemistry and Electron Transfer Studies #Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1311.6363
openalex publication_date 2013/11/25 · openalex created_date 2016/08/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We show that the efficient excitation energy transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson molecular aggregate under realistic physiological conditions is fueled by underdamped vibrations of the embedding proteins. For this, we present numerically exact results for the quantum dynamics of the excitons in the presence of nonadiabatic vibrational states in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson aggregate employing a environmental fluctuation spectral function derived from experiments. Assuming the prominent 180 cm-1 vibrational mode to be underdamped, we observe, on the one hand, besides vibrational coherent oscillations between different excitation levels of the vibration also prolonged electronic coherent oscillations between the initially excited site and its neighbours. On the other hand, however, the underdamped vibrations provide additional channels for the excitation energy transfer and by this increase the transfer speed by up to 30% .