The Fenna-Matthews Olson (FMO) complex, which mediates the transfer of solar energy from light harvesting complexes to reaction centers in photosynthetic green sulfur bacteria, is the simplest naturally occurring pigment-protein complex (PPC). It is a trimer of weakly interacting PPCs; each monomer contains seven bacteriochlorophyll a (BChl) molecules, in which delocalized excitations form a system of excitons. Two-dimensional photon echo spectroscopy (2DPE) is well suited to investigate the dynamic behavior of this system. Preliminary experimental 2DPE results revealed strongly coherent energy-transfer dynamics in the FMO complex; surprisingly long-lived coherences, with lifetimes up to 660 fs, were detected. In this work, 2DPE signals are simulated using the equation-of-motion phase-matching-approach, which is valid up to third order in the system-field interaction, has no limitations with respect to pulse duration, and automatically accounts for pulse overlap effects. Exciton dynamics, 2DPE spectra profiles, and oscillations in spectral peak intensity with population time of two FMO model systems were thoroughly studied. Because the monomers of the FMO trimer are weakly interacting, only a single monomer of the FMO complex is considered here, for which each of the seven pigments is represented by an electronic two-level system; excited states are coupled, thereby forming a system of excitons. Vibrational degrees of freedom of the pigments and the protein environment are taken into account as a harmonic (thermal) bath. Invoking the secular approximation, values for the dephasing of the exciton states and the pure optical dephasing were estimated by a comparison with experimental 2D signals. In order to account for vibronic effects on coherences, a second model is considered: a single pair of electronically coupled BChl molecules. As before, each molecule is allowed a single excited electronic state, however in this case one vibrational mode for each pigment is included in the system. The effect of dephasing and coherence transfer on system dynamics of the dimer model is studied in detail.
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The Fenna-Matthews Olson (FMO) complex, which mediates the transfer of solar energy from light harvesting complexes to reaction centers in photosynthetic green sulfur bacteria, is the simplest naturally occurring pigment-protein complex (PPC). It is a trimer of weakly interacting PPCs; each monomer contains seven bacteriochlorophyll a (BChl) molecules, in which delocalized excitations form a system of excitons. Two-dimensional photon echo spectroscopy (2DPE) is well suited to investigate the dy...
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