Vibrational relaxation photosynthetic reaction center

The next two chapters are devoted to ultrafast radiationless transitions. In Chapter 5, the generalized linear response theory is used to treat the non-equilibrium dynamics of molecular systems. This method, based on the density matrix method, can also be used to calculate the transient spectroscopic signals that are often monitored experimentally. As an application of the method, the authors present the study of the interfadal photo-induced electron transfer in dye-sensitized solar cell as observed by transient absorption spectroscopy. Chapter 6 uses the density matrix method to discuss important processes that occur in the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center, which has congested electronic structure within 200-1500cm 1 and weak interactions between these electronic states. Therefore, this biological system is an ideal system to examine theoretical models (memory effect, coherence effect, vibrational relaxation, etc.) and techniques (generalized linear response theory, Forster-Dexter theory, Marcus theory, internal conversion theory, etc.) for treating ultrafast radiationless transition phenomena. 

By using transient absorption spectroscopic techniques, time-resolved measurements of photo-induced interfacial ET with time-constants shorter than 100 fsec have become possible [51,52,58-60]. When ultrashort laser pulses are used in studying PIET, vibrational coherences (or vibrational wave packet) can often be observed and have indeed been observed in a number of dye-sensitized solar cell systems. This type of quantum beat has also been observed in ultrafast PIET in photosynthetic reaction center [22], It should be noted that when the PIET takes place in the time scale shorter than 100 fsec, vibrational relaxation between the system and the heat bath is slower than PIET this is the so-called vibrationally non-relaxed ET case, and it will be treated in this section. 

Vibrational Coherence and Relaxation in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers... 

Oscillations of fluorescence, stimulated emission and excited-state absorption have been studied by pump-probe techniques and fluorescence upconversion, and have been seen in numerous small molecules in solution (Fig. 11.7A [120, 122-124]), and also in photosynthetic bacterial reaction centers [27, 125, 126]. They typically damp out over the course of several picoseconds as a result of vibrational relaxations and dephasing. Vibrational coherences generally decay more slowly than electronic coherences because the energies of vibrational states are not coupled as strongly to fluctuating interactions with the surroundings. Vibrational dephasing also tends to be less dependent on the temperature. 

---