Efficient Pathways of Excitation Energy Transfer from Delocalized S 2 Excitons in the Peridinin–Chlorophyll a –Protein Complex
Excitation energy transfer (EET) in peridinin–chlorophyll–protein (PCP) complexes is dominated by the S 1 → Q y pathway, but the high efficiencies cannot be solely explained by this one pathway. We postulate that EET from peridinin S 2 excitons may also be important. We use complete active space configuration interaction calculations and the transition density cube method to calculate Coulombic couplings between peridinin and chlorophyll a in the PCP complex of the dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae and compare monomeric and dimeric delocalized peridinin S 2 excited states. Our calculations show that the S 2 → Q y EET pathway from peridinin to chlorophyll a is the dominant energy transfer pathway from the S 2 excited state in PCP, with several values in the sub-picosecond range. Here, this result suggests that the S 2 → Q y EET pathway may be responsible for the reported chlorophyll a bleaching signature seen in experiment at around 200 fs, and not the S 2 → Q x pathway as previously suggested.