Energy Transfer Dynamics In Biomaterial Systems

Energy Transfer Dynamics in Biomaterial Systems

The role of quantum coherence in promoting the e ciency of the initial stages of photosynthesis is an open and intriguing question. Lee, Cheng, and Fleming, Science 316, 1462 (2007) The understanding and design of functional biomaterials is one of today’s grand challenge areas that has sparked an intense exchange between biology, materials sciences, electronics, and various other disciplines. Many new - velopments are underway in organic photovoltaics, molecular electronics, and biomimetic research involving, e. g. , arti cal light-harvesting systems inspired by photosynthesis, along with a host of other concepts and device applications. In fact, materials scientists may well be advised to take advantage of Nature’s 3. 8 billion year head-start in designing new materials for light-harvesting and electro-optical applications. Since many of these developments reach into the molecular domain, the - derstanding of nano-structured functional materials equally necessitates f- damental aspects of molecular physics, chemistry, and biology. The elementary energy and charge transfer processes bear much similarity to the molecular phenomena that have been revealed in unprecedented detail by ultrafast op- cal spectroscopies. Indeed, these spectroscopies, which were initially developed and applied for the study of small molecular species, have already evolved into an invaluable tool to monitor ultrafast dynamics in complex biological and materials systems. The molecular-level phenomena in question are often of intrinsically quantum mechanical character, and involve tunneling, non-Born- Oppenheimer e ects, and quantum-mechanical phase coherence.

Energy Transfer Dynamics in Biomaterial Systems

Conical Intersections

The concept of adiabatic electronic potential-energy surfaces, defined by the Born?Oppenheimer approximation, is fundamental to our thinking about chemical processes. Recent computational as well as experimental studies have produced ample evidence that the so-called conical intersections of electronic energy surfaces, predicted by von Neumann and Wigner in 1929, are the rule rather than the exception in polyatomic molecules. It is nowadays increasingly recognized that conical intersections play a key mechanistic role in chemical reaction dynamics. This volume provides an up-to-date overview of the multi-faceted research on the role of conical intersections in photochemistry and photobiology, including basic theoretical concepts, novel computational strategies as well as innovative experiments. The contents and discussions will be of value to advanced students and researchers in photochemistry, molecular spectroscopy and related areas.