Efficient Pathways of Excitation Energy Transfer from Delocalized S2 Excitons in the Peridinin–Chlorophyll a–Protein Complex

Excitation energy transfer (EET) in peridinin-chlorophyll-protein (PCP) complexes is dominated by the S1 → Qy pathway, but the high efficiencies cannot be solely explained by this one pathway. We postulate that EET from peridinin S2 excitons may also be important. We use complete active space configuration interaction calculations and the transition density cube method to calculate Coulombic couplings between peridinin and chlorophyll a in the PCP complex of the dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae and compare monomeric and dimeric delocalized peridinin S2 excited states. Our calculations show that the S2 → Qy EET pathway from peridinin to chlorophyll a is the dominant energy transfer pathway from the S2 excited state in PCP, with several values in the sub-picosecond range. This result suggests that the S2 → Qy EET pathway may be responsible for the reported chlorophyll a bleaching signature seen in experiment at around 200 fs, and not the S2 → Qx pathway as previously suggested.