Plasmon induced modifications of the Förster energy transfer in reconstituted peridinin-chlorophyll-protein photosynthetic complex

In this work we investigate theoretically the effects imposed by plasmon excitations in spherical metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) on the rate of energy transfer in peridinin-chlorophyll-protein (PCP) complex reconstituted with both chlorophyll a (Chl a) and chlorophyll b (Chl b). This light-harvesting complex is unique since it features efficient energy transfer both from higher-lying Chl b to lower-lying Chl a as well as in the opposite, less energy-favorable direction. The results of calculations show that the Förster energy transfer rate decreases with a MNP-PCP distance changing from 2 to 14 nm, while the energy transfer from Chl a to Chl b remains less efficient at all distances. We conclude that plasmon excitations allow for controlling the energy transfer between Chls, as well as the excitation distribution between two spectrally distinguishable Chls within the reconstituted PCP complex.