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Coherent wavepackets in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex are robust to excitonic-structure perturbations caused by mutagenesis.

Author
Abstract
:

Femtosecond pulsed excitation of light-harvesting complexes creates oscillatory features in their response. This phenomenon has inspired a large body of work aimed at uncovering the origin of the coherent beatings and possible implications for function. Here we exploit site-directed mutagenesis to change the excitonic level structure in Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complexes and compare the coherences using broadband pump-probe spectroscopy. Our experiments detect two oscillation frequencies with dephasing on a picosecond timescale-both at 77 K and at room temperature. By studying these coherences with selective excitation pump-probe experiments, where pump excitation is in resonance only with the lowest excitonic state, we show that the key contributions to these oscillations stem from ground-state vibrational wavepackets. These experiments explicitly show that the coherences-although in the ground electronic state-can be probed at the absorption resonances of other bacteriochlorophyll molecules because of delocalization of the electronic excitation over several chromophores.

Year of Publication
:
2018
Journal
:
Nature chemistry
Volume
:
10
Issue
:
2
Number of Pages
:
177-183
ISSN Number
:
1755-4330
URL
:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2910
DOI
:
10.1038/nchem.2910
Short Title
:
Nat Chem
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