Regensburg 2002 – scientific programme

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SYBM: Physik biologischer Materie

SYBM V: HV V

SYBM V.1: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 14:30–15:00, H37

Observation of Charge and Energy Transfer in Single Pigment-Protein Complexes — •J. Wrachtrup, C. Tietz, F. Jelezko, S. Schuler, U. Gerken und B. Götze — Stuttgart University, 70550 Stuttgart

Photosynthesis, one of the key metabolic processes on earth relies on the mutual interaction of pigments in pigment-protein complexes. It has been the aim of countless spectroscopic experiments to unreveal these interactions thus explaining the fascinating properties of photosynthesis, for example its high efficiency. Recently single molecule spectroscopy has proven to be a valuable new tool in the field. We apply this technique to pigment-protein complexes from water splitting photosynthetic units. The major light harvesting complexes (light harvesting complex 2)found in such units from plants for example is probably the most abundant membrane protein on earth. Single molecule spectroscopy has recently provided new insight into the function and structure of this complex. The fluorescence intensity of the reaction center containing photosystem 1 and 2 depends on the charge transfer state of the reaction center. By observing the fluorescence of the photosystems as a function of time we were able to provide new insight into the charge transfer dynamics in a single reaction center.