The functionality and control of biological systems and nanostructured (bio)assemblies have been under intense investigation over recent years, in view of developing a detailed understanding of ultrafast nanoscale energy and charge transfer, as well as fostering novel technologies based on sustainable energy resources. Big strides have been made in both experiment and theory to meet the challenge of these truly complex systems.
This book provides a combined experimental and theoretical spotlight on the molecular-level investigation of light-induced quantum processes in these systems and introduces the reader to cutting-edge developments in ultrafast nonlinear optical spectroscopies and the quantum-dynamical simulation of the observed dynamics, including direct simulations of two-dimensional optical experiments. Taken together, these techniques attempt to elucidate whether the quantum coherent nature of ultrafast events enhances the efficiency of the relevant processes, and where the quantum–classical boundary sets in, in these high-dimensional biological and material systems. The book includes topics on DNA photostability and repair, photoactive proteins, biological and artificial light-harvesting systems, plasmonic nanostructures, and organic photovoltaics materials, whose common denominator is an important key of ultrafast quantum effects at the border between the molecular scale and the nanoscale.
About the Editors:
Stefan Haacke is the director of the Strasbourg Institute of Materials Physics and Chemistry, University of Strasbourg, France, since 2013. He received his PhD in physics in 1994 from the Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France. He then joined the Physics Department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, as a postdoctoral researcher with B. Deveaud. He was an assistant professor in Prof. M. Chegui’s group at EPFL from 1999 to 2004. He then joined the former Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France, as full professor of physics in 2004. His current research topics are ultrafast photo-induced processes in photo-active proteins, biomolecules, organic functional nanostructures, and instrumentation for ultrafast spectroscopy.
Irene Burghardt is full professor of theoretical chemistry at Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany, which she joined in 2011. She received her PhD in chemistry from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1992. She did her postdoctoral research at the Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Brussels, from 1992 to 1995, followed by research fellowships at the universities of Bonn and Heidelberg during 1996–1998. From 1999 to 2011, she held a research position at the National Center for Scientific Research at ENS Paris, and was also appointed its research director in 2007. Her current research addresses quantum molecular dynamics and nonequilibrium phenomena, with a focus on materials and biological systems.
