Classical approach to multichromophoric resonance energy transfer

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 115; no. 11; p. 110402
• Main Authors: Duque, Sebastián, Brumer, Paul, Pachón, Leonardo A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 11.09.2015
• ISSN: 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.110402

A classical formulation of the quantum multichromophoric theory of resonance energy transfer is developed on the basis of classical electrodynamics. The theory allows for the identification of a variety of processes of different order in the interactions that contribute to the energy transfer in molecular aggregates with intracoupling in donors and acceptor chromophores. Enhanced rates in multichromophoric resonance energy transfer are shown to be well described by this theory. Specifically, in a coupling configuration between N_{A} acceptors and N_{D} donors, the theory correctly predicts an enhancement of the energy transfer rate dependent on the total number of donor-acceptor pairs. As an example, the theory, applied to the transfer rate in light harvesting II, gives results in excellent agreement with experiment. Finally, it is explicitly shown that as long as linear response theory holds, the classical multichromophoric theory formally coincides with the quantum formulation.