Coherent Multidimensional Spectroscopy of the Oxygen Evolving Complex in Photosystem II

在化学测量和成像计划的支持和化学系化学结构、动力学和机制计划的共同资助下，威斯康星大学的约翰·赖特教授和他的团队正在开发和使用强大的新型激光光谱探测器来研究光合作用如何从水中产生氧气。氧气的产生是光合作用中最困难的步骤，因为它需要协调地去除四个电子。人们在了解植物中的放氧复合体(OEC)方面做了大量的工作，但其复杂性限制了进展。赖特教授的方法使用多个激光来创建多个量子相干(MQC)-来自OEC不同部分的波函数的混合。MQC反过来重新发射光束，这些光束具有OEC的高度特征，从而揭示了从水中产生氧气所需的四个步骤中的每一个步骤的细节-这是开发高效人工光合作用所需的关键洞察力。揭开OEC的神秘面纱将在我们的社会产生广泛的影响，因为它是开发新技术以满足我们未来能源需求的关键。这个项目的目标是理解OEC，它将提供一个模型，说明自然界如何实现高效的太阳能转换，科学家可以利用它来设计新技术。显然，新的激光方法在许多科学领域具有广泛的适用性，可以更深入地探索分子结构和动力学如何控制材料-S的性质和应用。赖特教授也是为大学教学开发新的主动学习方法的领导者，他将把自己研究的各个方面纳入这些努力。他是一个大学联盟的成员，该联盟致力于为不同的学生受众实施和推进有效的教学实践，作为他们职业生涯的一部分。

With support from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program and co-funding from the Chemical Structures, Dynamics, and Mechanisms Program in the Division of Chemistry, Prof. John Wright and his group at the University of Wisconsin are developing and employing powerful new laser spectroscopic probes to investigate how photosynthesis generates oxygen from water. Oxygen generation is the most difficult step in photosynthesis because it requires the coordinated removal of four electrons. A great deal of effort has gone into understanding the oxygen evolving complex (OEC) in plants but its complexity has limited progress. Professor Wright's methods use multiple lasers to create multiple quantum coherences (MQCs) - mixtures of wave functions from different parts of the OEC. The MQCs in turn re-emit light beams that are highly characteristic of the OEC parts from which they originate, thereby revealing details of each of the four steps required to create oxygen from water - key insights needed to develop efficient artificial photosynthesis.Unraveling the mysteries of the OEC will have a broad impact in our society because it is a key to developing new technologies to satisfy our future energy needs. This program's goal of understanding the OEC will provide a model of how nature achieves high efficiency solar conversion that scientists can use in designing new technologies. It is also clear that the new laser methods have wide applicability in many fields of science for probing more deeply into how molecular structure and dynamics control a material?s properties and applications. Professor Wright is also a leader in developing new active learning methods for college teaching, and will incorporate aspects of his research in those efforts. He is part of a consortium of universities committed to implementing and advancing effective teaching practices for diverse student audiences as part of their professional careers.