Photosynthetic light-harvesting by carotenoids: detection of an intermediate excited state

Author

Cerullo, G. ; Polli, D. ; Lanzani, G. ; De Silvestri, S. ; Hashimoto, H. ; Cogdell, R.J.

Author_Institution

Nat. Lab. for Ultrafast & Ultraintense Opt. Sci., INFM, Milan, Italy

fYear

2003

fDate

22-27 June 2003

Firstpage

169

Abstract

This paper studies all-trans-β-carotene in cyclohexane solution, excited by 15-fs blue pulses (510 nm), resonant with the S₀ → S₂ transition. The temporal evolution of differential transmission is probed using sub-10-fs visible pulses (500-700 nm) and 12-fs near-IR pulses (820-1020 nm). Pump and probe pulses are derived from two independent non-collinear optical parametric amplifiers.

Keywords

bio-optics; excited states; high-speed optical techniques; infrared spectra; molecular biophysics; optical parametric amplifiers; photosynthesis; proteins; visible spectra; 12 fs; 15 fs; 500 to 700 nm; 510 nm; 820 to 1020 nm; blue pulses; carotenoids; cyclohexane solution; differential transmission; intermediate excited state; light-harvesting; noncollinear optical parametric amplifiers; photosynthesis; probe pulses; pump pulses; Absorption; Biomedical optical imaging; Evolution (biology); Nonlinear optics; Optical pulses; Probes; Pulse amplifiers; Resonance; Stationary state; Ultrafast optics;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Quantum Electronics Conference, 2003. EQEC '03. European

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7733-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EQEC.2003.1314026

Filename

1314026