@article{BetkeLokstein2019,
  author    = {Betke, Alexander and Lokstein, Heiko},
  title     = {Two-photon excitation spectroscopy of photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes and pigments},
  series = {Faraday discussions},
  volume    = {216},
  journal   = {Faraday discussions},
  publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry},
  address   = {Cambridge},
  issn      = {1359-6640},
  doi       = {10.1039/c8fd00198g},
  pages     = {494 -- 506},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {In addition to (bacterio)chlorophylls, (B)Chls, light-harvesting complexes (LHCs) bind carotenoids, and/or their oxygen derivatives, xanthophylls. Xanthophylls/carotenoids have pivotal functions in LHCs: in stabilization of the structure, as accessory light-harvesting pigments and, probably most importantly, in photoprotection. Xanthophylls are assumed to be involved in the not yet fully understood mechanism of energy-dependent (qE) non-photochemical quenching of Chl fluorescence (NPQ) in higher plants and algae. The so called "xanthophyll cycle" appears to be crucial in this regard. The molecular mechanism(s) of xanthophyll involvement in qE/NPQ have not been established, yet. Moreover, excitation energy transfer (EET) processes involving carotenoids are also difficult to study, due to the fact that transitions between the ground state (S-0, 1(1)A(g)(-)) and the lowest excited singlet state (S-1, 2(1)A(g)(-)) of carotenoids are optically one-photon forbidden ("dark"). Two-photon excitation spectroscopic techniques have been used for more than two decades to study one-photon forbidden states of carotenoids. In the current study, two-photon excitation profiles of LHCII samples containing different xanthophyll complements were measured in the presumed 1(1)A(g)(-) -> 2(1)A(g)(-) (S-0 -> S-1) transition spectral region of the xanthophylls, as well as for isolated chlorophylls a and b in solution. The results indicate that direct two-photon excitation of Chls in this spectral region is dominant over that by xanthophylls. Implications of the results for proposed mechanism(s) of qE/NPQ will be discussed.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{LoksteinKrikunovaTeuchneretal.2011,
  author    = {Lokstein, Heiko and Krikunova, Maria and Teuchner, Klaus and Voigt, Bernd},
  title     = {Elucidation of structure-function relationships in photosynthetic light-harvesting antenna complexes by non-linear polarization spectroscopy in the frequency domain (NLPF)},
  series = {Journal of plant physiology : biochemistry, physiology, molecular biology and biotechnology of plants},
  volume    = {168},
  journal   = {Journal of plant physiology : biochemistry, physiology, molecular biology and biotechnology of plants},
  number    = {12},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Jena},
  issn      = {0176-1617},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.jplph.2010.12.012},
  pages     = {1488 -- 1496},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {Photosynthetically active pigments are usually organized into pigment-protein complexes. These include light-harvesting antenna complexes (LHCs) and reaction centers. Site energies of the bound pigments are determined by interactions with their environment, i.e., by pigment-protein as well as pigment-pigment interactions. Thus, resolution of spectral substructures of the pigment-protein complexes may provide valuable insight into structure-function relationships. By means of conventional (linear) and time-resolved spectroscopic techniques, however, it is often difficult to resolve the spectral substructures of complex pigment-protein assemblies. Nonlinear polarization spectroscopy in the frequency domain (NLPF) is shown to be a valuable technique in this regard. Based on initial experimental work with purple bacterial antenna complexes as well as model systems NLPF has been extended to analyse the substructure(s) of very complex spectra, including analyses of interactions between chlorophylls and "optically dark" states of carotenoids in LHCs. The paper reviews previous work and outlines perspectives regarding the application of NLPF spectroscopy to disentangle structure-function relationships in pigment-protein complexes.},
  language  = {en}
}