How biological molecules harness and control light energy is fundamental to life. In photosynthesis, elaborate antenna arrays gather solar energy and transfer it to photochemical reaction centers with 95% efficiency. An essential part of understanding nature’s underlying design principles is making the connection between structure and dynamics. Two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) can help make these connections... read more here

In photosynthetic systems, light-harvesting antenna complexes gather solar energy and transfer it to reaction centers that convert the energy into stable charge-separation that drives the later stages of photosynthesis. The primary energy transfer and charge separation processes occur on ultrafast (femtosecond-picosecond) timescales, with high unit quantum efficiency. We are interested in uncovering the design principles at work in natural photosynthetic systems.

University of Michigan    |    Department of Physics    |    Biophysics at Michigan