Long-range energy propagation in nanometer arrays of light harvesting antenna complexes

Maryana Escalante, Aufried Lenferink, Yiping Zhao, Niels Tas, Jurriaan Huskens, C Neil Hunter, Vinod Subramaniam, Cees Otto

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    Here we report the first observation of long-range transport of excitation energy within a biomimetic molecular nanoarray constructed from LH2 antenna complexes from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Fluorescence microscopy of the emission of light after local excitation with a diffraction-limited light beam reveals long-range transport of excitation energy over micrometer distances, which is much larger than required in the parent bacterial system. The transport was established from the influence of active energy-guiding layers on the observed fluorescence emission. We speculate that such an extent of energy migration occurs as a result of efficient coupling between many hundreds of LH2 molecules. These results demonstrate the potential for long-range energy propagation in hybrid systems composed of natural light harvesting antenna molecules from photosynthetic organisms.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1450-7
    Number of pages8
    JournalNano Letters
    Volume10
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 14 Apr 2010

    Keywords

    • Biomimetic Materials
    • Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes
    • Nanotechnology
    • Rhodobacter sphaeroides
    • Spectrometry, Fluorescence
    • Thermodynamics
    • Journal Article
    • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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