title: Effect of strong electron correlation on the efficiency of photosynthetic light harvesting.
abstract: Research into the efficiency of photosynthetic light harvesting has focused on two factors: (1) entanglement of chromophores, and (2) environmental noise. While chromophores are conjugated π-bonding molecules with strongly correlated electrons, previous models have treated this correlation implicitly without a mathematical variable to gauge correlation-enhanced efficiency. Here we generalize the single-electron/exciton models to a multi-electron/exciton model that explicitly shows the effects of enhanced electron correlation within chromophores on the efficiency of energy transfer. The model provides more detailed insight into the interplay of electron correlation within chromophores and electron entanglement between chromophores. Exploiting this interplay is assisting in the design of new energy-efficient materials, which are just beginning to emerge.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and The James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. damazz@uchicago.edu
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Mazziotti
mesh_terms: D004583:Electrons; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D008958:Models, Molecular; D010788:Photosynthesis; D011789:Quantum Theory
chemical_list: D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes