Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kleinekathoefer
Theoretical Physics
Jacobs University
Bremen, Germany

Monday, September 26, 2011
3:00 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

The light absorption in light-harvesting complexes is performed by chlorophyll molecules. Recent experimental findings in some of these complexes suggest the existence of long-lived coherences between the individual pigments at low temperatures. In this context the question arises if the bath-induced fluctuations at different chromophores are spatially correlated or not. To this end we performed classical molecular dynamics simulations and quantum chemistry calculations on some light-harvesting systems. In these investigations at ambient temperatures, only weak correlations between the movements of the chromophores were detected at the atomic level. Furthermore two strategies will be outlined how to use the input from the atomistic simulations to study the transfer of energy in light-harvesting systems. On top of this, the same techniques can be employed to determine two-dimensional spectra which can be directly linked to experiment.