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1. Quantum biology revisited

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz4888  

   Cao, Jianshu ; Cogdell, Richard J. ; Coker, David F. ; Duan, Hong-Guang ; Hauer, Jürgen ; Kleinekathöfer, Ulrich ; Jansen, Thomas L. ; Mančal, Tomáš ; Miller, R. J. ; Ogilvie, Jennifer P. ; et al ( April 2020 , Science Advances)

   Photosynthesis is a highly optimized process from which valuable lessons can be learned about the operating principles in nature. Its primary steps involve energy transport operating near theoretical quantum limits in efficiency. Recently, extensive research was motivated by the hypothesis that nature used quantum coherences to direct energy transfer. This body of work, a cornerstone for the field of quantum biology, rests on the interpretation of small-amplitude oscillations in two-dimensional electronic spectra of photosynthetic complexes. This Review discusses recent work reexamining these claims and demonstrates that interexciton coherences are too short lived to have any functional significance in photosynthetic energymore »transfer. Instead, the observed long-lived coherences originate from impulsively excited vibrations, generally observed in femtosecond spectroscopy. These efforts, collectively, lead to a more detailed understanding of the quantum aspects of dissipation. Nature, rather than trying to avoid dissipation, exploits it via engineering of exciton-bath interaction to create efficient energy flow.« less
2. DNA scaffold supports long-lived vibronic coherence in an indodicarbocyanine (Cy5) dimer

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D0SC01127D  

   Sohail, Sara H. ; Otto, John P. ; Cunningham, Paul D. ; Kim, Young C. ; Wood, Ryan E. ; Allodi, Marco A. ; Higgins, Jacob S. ; Melinger, Joseph S. ; Engel, Gregory S. ( August 2020 , Chemical Science)

   Vibronic coupling between pigment molecules is believed to prolong coherences in photosynthetic pigment–protein complexes. Reproducing long-lived coherences using vibronically coupled chromophores in synthetic DNA constructs presents a biomimetic route to efficient artificial light harvesting. Here, we present two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectra of one monomeric Cy5 construct and two dimeric Cy5 constructs (0 bp and 1 bp between dyes) on a DNA scaffold and perform beating frequency analysis to interpret observed coherences. Power spectra of quantum beating signals of the dimers reveal high frequency oscillations that correspond to coherences between vibronic exciton states. Beating frequency maps confirm that these oscillations, 1270more »cm −1 and 1545 cm −1 for the 0-bp dimer and 1100 cm −1 for the 1-bp dimer, are coherences between vibronic exciton states and that these coherences persist for ∼300 fs. Our observations are well described by a vibronic exciton model, which predicts the excitonic coupling strength in the dimers and the resulting molecular exciton states. The energy spacing between those states closely corresponds to the observed beat frequencies. MD simulations indicate that the dyes in our constructs lie largely internal to the DNA base stacking region, similar to the native design of biological light harvesting complexes. Observed coherences persist on the timescale of photosynthetic energy transfer yielding further parallels to observed biological coherences, establishing DNA as an attractive scaffold for synthetic light harvesting applications.« less
3. Variety, the spice of life and essential for robustness in excitation energy transfer in light-harvesting complexes

   https://doi.org/10.1039/c9fd00081j  

   Oh, Sue Ann ; Coker, David F. ; Hutchinson, David A. W. ( January 2020 , Faraday Discussions)

   For over a decade there has been some significant excitement and speculation that quantum effects may be important in the excitation energy transport process in the light harvesting complexes of certain bacteria and algae, in particular via the Fenna–Matthews–Olsen (FMO) complex. Whilst the excitement may have waned somewhat with the realisation that the observed long-lived oscillations in two-dimensional electronic spectra of FMO are probably due to vibronic coherences, it remains a question whether these coherences may play any important role. We review our recent work showing how important the site-to-site variation in coupling between chloroplasts in FMO and their proteinmore »scaffold environment is for energy transport in FMO and investigate the role of vibronic modes in this transport. Whilst the effects of vibronic excitations seem modest for FMO, we show that for bilin-based pigment–protein complexes of marine algae, in particular PC645, the site-dependent vibronic excitations seem essential for robust excitation energy transport, which may again open the door for important quantum effects to be important in these photosynthetic complexes.« less
4. Photosynthesis tunes quantum-mechanical mixing of electronic and vibrational states to steer exciton energy transfer

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2018240118  

   Higgins, Jacob S. ; Lloyd, Lawson T. ; Sohail, Sara H. ; Allodi, Marco A. ; Otto, John P. ; Saer, Rafael G. ; Wood, Ryan E. ; Massey, Sara C. ; Ting, Po-Chieh ; Blankenship, Robert E. ; et al ( March 2021 , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Photosynthetic species evolved to protect their light-harvesting apparatus from photoxidative damage driven by intracellular redox conditions or environmental conditions. The Fenna–Matthews–Olson (FMO) pigment–protein complex from green sulfur bacteria exhibits redox-dependent quenching behavior partially due to two internal cysteine residues. Here, we show evidence that a photosynthetic complex exploits the quantum mechanics of vibronic mixing to activate an oxidative photoprotective mechanism. We use two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) to capture energy transfer dynamics in wild-type and cysteine-deficient FMO mutant proteins under both reducing and oxidizing conditions. Under reducing conditions, we find equal energy transfer through the exciton 4–1 and 4–2-1 pathways becausemore »the exciton 4–1 energy gap is vibronically coupled with a bacteriochlorophyll-avibrational mode. Under oxidizing conditions, however, the resonance of the exciton 4–1 energy gap is detuned from the vibrational mode, causing excitons to preferentially steer through the indirect 4–2-1 pathway to increase the likelihood of exciton quenching. We use a Redfield model to show that the complex achieves this effect by tuning the site III energy via the redox state of its internal cysteine residues. This result shows how pigment–protein complexes exploit the quantum mechanics of vibronic coupling to steer energy transfer.

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5. Unraveling luminescence mechanisms in zero-dimensional halide perovskites

   https://doi.org/10.1039/c8tc01291a  

   Han, Dan ; Shi, Hongliang ; Ming, Wenmei ; Zhou, Chenkun ; Ma, Biwu ; Saparov, Bayrammurad ; Ma, Ying-Zhong ; Chen, Shiyou ; Du, Mao-Hua ( January 2018 , Journal of Materials Chemistry C)

   Zero-dimensional (0D) halides perovskites, in which anionic metal-halide octahedra (MX 6 ) 4− are separated by organic or inorganic countercations, have recently shown promise as excellent luminescent materials. However, the origin of the photoluminescence (PL) and, in particular, the different photophysical properties in hybrid organic–inorganic and all inorganic halides are still poorly understood. In this work, first-principles calculations were performed to study the excitons and intrinsic defects in 0D hybrid organic–inorganic halides (C 4 N 2 H 14 X) 4 SnX 6 (X = Br, I), which exhibit a high photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQE) at room temperature (RT), and alsomore »in the 0D inorganic halide Cs 4 PbBr 6 , which suffers from strong thermal quenching when T > 100 K. We show that the excitons in all three 0D halides are strongly bound and cannot be detrapped or dissociated at RT, which leads to immobile excitons in (C 4 N 2 H 14 X) 4 SnX 6 . However, the excitons in Cs 4 PbBr 6 can still migrate by tunneling, enabled by the resonant transfer of excitation energy (Dexter energy transfer). The exciton migration in Cs 4 PbBr 6 leads to a higher probability of trapping and nonradiative recombination at the intrinsic defects. We show that a large Stokes shift and the negligible electronic coupling between luminescent centers are important for suppressing exciton migration; thereby, enhancing the photoluminescence quantum efficiency. Our results also suggest that the frequently observed bright green emission in Cs 4 PbBr 6 is not due to the exciton or defect-induced emission in Cs 4 PbBr 6 but rather the result of exciton emission from CsPbBr 3 inclusions trapped in Cs 4 PbBr 6 .« less