Article

Superradiance and Exciton Delocalization in Bacterial Photosynthetic Light-Harvesting Systems

Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
J. Phys. Chem. B, 1997, 101 (37), pp 7241–7248
DOI: 10.1021/jp963377t
Publication Date (Web): September 11, 1997
Copyright © 1997 American Chemical Society

Abstract

We present temperature-dependent fluorescence quantum yield and lifetime measurements on the LH-1 and LH-2 complexes of Rhodobacter sphaeroides and on the isolated B820 subunit of Rhodospirillum rubrum. From these measurements the superradiance is calculated, which is related to the delocalization of excitations in these complexes. In the B820 preparation we find a radiative rate that is 30% higher than that of monomeric bacteriochlorophyll, in agreement with a dimer model of this subunit. At room temperature both LH-1 and LH-2 are superradiant relative to monomeric Bchl-a with enhancement factors of 3.8 and 2.8, respectively. In LH-2 the radiative rate does not change significantly upon lowering the temperature to 4 K. LH-1 however exhibits a strong temperature dependence, giving rise to a 2.4 times higher radiative rate at 4 K relative to room temperature. From modeling of the superradiance using a Hamiltonian based on the LH-2 structure and including site inhomogeneity, we conclude that the ratio of inhomogeneity over the coupling between the pigments is around 1 for LH-1 and 2−3 for LH-2. From the Monte Carlo simulations we estimate the delocalization length in LH-1 and LH-2 to be on the order of 3−4 pigments at room temperature.

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Article Views: 830 Times
Received 29 October 1996
Published online 11 September 1997
Published in print 1 September 1997
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