Kurzbeschreibung: Do you want use femtosecond laser-spectroscopy to study photosynthetic energy-conversion?
Beschreibung: All forms of higher life on earth rely directly or indirectly on photosynthesis – the biological conversion of light into chemical energy. Substantial attention is being paid to these crucial processes, not only in terms of fundamental principles of nature, but also as inspiration for artificial light-driven systems such as photovoltaics and photocatalysts.
The photosystems of green plants and oxygen-evolving bacteria, whose core functionality is maintained by the two pigment-protein complexes Photosystem I and Photosystem II, are especially privileged due to their direct importance to human life.
In this project, we investigate the processes involved from light capture, via energy transfer, to charge separation in the photosynthetic reaction center of Photosystem I. The tools of choice is temperature-controlled and time-resolved absorption spectroscopies, where we can follow dynamics down to only ~10 femtoseconds.
The successfully completed project will provide important insight into the functionality of this complex system, aiding both in the theoretical modeling of pigment-protein complexes and in the interpretation of data from biochemical experiments.
Kontaktperson: Jürgen Hauer, juergen.hauer[ät]tum.de