Using coherence to enhance function in chemical and biophysical systems

Gregory D Scholes; Graham R Fleming; Lin X Chen; Alán Aspuru-Guzik; Andreas Buchleitner; David F Coker; Gregory S Engel; Rienk van Grondelle; Akihito Ishizaki; David M Jonas; Jeff S Lundeen; James K McCusker; Shaul Mukamel; Jennifer P Ogilvie; Alexandra Olaya-Castro; Mark A Ratner; Frank C Spano; K Birgitta Whaley; Xiaoyang Zhu

doi:10.1038/nature21425

Using coherence to enhance function in chemical and biophysical systems

Nature. 2017 Mar 29;543(7647):647-656. doi: 10.1038/nature21425.

Authors

Gregory D Scholes¹, Graham R Fleming², Lin X Chen^{3

4}, Alán Aspuru-Guzik⁵, Andreas Buchleitner⁶, David F Coker⁷, Gregory S Engel⁸, Rienk van Grondelle⁹, Akihito Ishizaki¹⁰, David M Jonas¹¹, Jeff S Lundeen¹², James K McCusker¹³, Shaul Mukamel¹⁴, Jennifer P Ogilvie¹⁵, Alexandra Olaya-Castro¹⁶, Mark A Ratner⁴, Frank C Spano¹⁷, K Birgitta Whaley^{18

19}, Xiaoyang Zhu²⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
² Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley and Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
³ Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
⁶ Institute of Physics, Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany.
⁷ Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
⁸ Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, VU University Amsterdam, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹⁰ Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan.
¹¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
¹² Department of Physics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada.
¹³ Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.
¹⁴ Departments of Chemistry and Physics and Astronomy, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
¹⁷ Department of Chemistry, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Chemistry, University of California-Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
¹⁹ Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
²⁰ Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.

PMID: 28358065
DOI: 10.1038/nature21425

Abstract

Coherence phenomena arise from interference, or the addition, of wave-like amplitudes with fixed phase differences. Although coherence has been shown to yield transformative ways for improving function, advances have been confined to pristine matter and coherence was considered fragile. However, recent evidence of coherence in chemical and biological systems suggests that the phenomena are robust and can survive in the face of disorder and noise. Here we survey the state of recent discoveries, present viewpoints that suggest that coherence can be used in complex chemical systems, and discuss the role of coherence as a design element in realizing function.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Biophysics*
Electrons
Energy Transfer
Metals / chemistry
Models, Biological*
Models, Chemical*
Models, Molecular
Motion
Quantum Theory
Spectrum Analysis
Time Factors
Vibration

Substances

Metals