Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 21 October 1994:
Vol. 266. no. 5184, pp. 422 - 424
DOI: 10.1126/science.7939680
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Science, Vol 266, Issue 5184, 422-424
Copyright © 1994 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Vibrationally coherent photochemistry in the femtosecond primary event of vision

Q Wang, RW Schoenlein, LA Peteanu, RA Mathies, and CV Shank

Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, 94720.

Femtosecond pump-probe experiments reveal the impulsive production of photoproduct in the primary event in vision. The retinal chromophore of rhodopsin was excited with a 35-femtosecond pulse at 500 nanometers, and transient changes in absorption were measured with 10-femtosecond probe pulses. At probe wavelengths within the photo-product absorption band, oscillatory features with a period of 550 femtoseconds (60 wavenumbers) were observed whose phase and amplitude demonstrate that they are the result of nonstationary vibrational motion in the ground state of the photoproduct. The observation of coherent vibrational motion of the photoproduct supports the idea that the primary step in vision is a vibrationally coherent process and that the high quantum yield of the cis-->trans isomerization in rhodopsin is a consequence of the extreme speed of the excited-state torsional motion.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Controlling the efficiency of an artificial light-harvesting complex.
J. Savolainen, R. Fanciulli, N. Dijkhuizen, A. L. Moore, J. Hauer, T. Buckup, M. Motzkus, and J. L. Herek (2008)
PNAS 105, 7641-7646
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
From the Cover: Multidimensional Ultrafast Spectroscopy Special Feature: Two-dimensional spectroscopy at infrared and optical frequencies.
R. M. Hochstrasser (2007)
PNAS 104, 14190-14196
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Tracking the excited-state time evolution of the visual pigment with multiconfigurational quantum chemistry.
L. M. Frutos, T. Andruniow, F. Santoro, N. Ferre, and M. Olivucci (2007)
PNAS 104, 7764-7769
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Coherent control of retinal isomerization in bacteriorhodopsin..
V. I. Prokhorenko, A. M. Nagy, S. A. Waschuk, L. S. Brown, R. R. Birge, and R. J. D. Miller (2006)
Science 313, 1257-1261
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Insights into excited-state and isomerization dynamics of bacteriorhodopsin from ultrafast transient UV absorption..
S. Schenkl, F. van Mourik, N. Friedman, M. Sheves, R. Schlesinger, S. Haacke, and M. Chergui (2006)
PNAS 103, 4101-4106
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Supramolecular Structure and Dynamics Special Feature: Possible role of the 11-cis-retinyl conformation in controlling the dual decay processes of excited rhodopsin.
R. S. H. Liu, G. S. Hammond, and T. Mirzadegan (2005)
PNAS 102, 10783-10787
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The molecular basis for the high photosensitivity of rhodopsin.
R. S. H. Liu and L. U. Colmenares (2003)
PNAS 100, 14639-14644
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Photosynthetic Light Harvesting by Carotenoids: Detection of an Intermediate Excited State.
G. Cerullo, D. Polli, G. Lanzani, S. De Silvestri, H. Hashimoto, and R. J. Cogdell (2002)
Science 298, 2395-2398
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Femtosecond dynamics of flavoproteins: Charge separation and recombination in riboflavine (vitamin B2)-binding protein and in glucose oxidase enzyme.
D. Zhong and A. H. Zewail (2001)
PNAS 98, 11867-11872
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Rhodopsin: Structural Basis of Molecular Physiology.
S. T. Menon, M. Han, and T. P. Sakmar (2001)
Physiol Rev 81, 1659-1688
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Blue-Fluorescent Antibodies.
A. Simeonov, M. Matsushita, E. A. Juban, E. H. Z. Thompson, T. Z. Hoffman, A. E. Beuscher IV, M. J. Taylor, P. Wirsching, W. Rettig, J. K. McCusker, et al. (2000)
Science 290, 307-313
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase B-catalyzed protochlorophyllide photoreduction in vitro: Insight into the mechanism of chlorophyll formation in light-adapted plants.
N. Lebedev and M. P. Timko (1999)
PNAS 96, 9954-9959
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Low frequency vibrational modes in proteins: Changes induced by point-mutations in the protein-cofactor matrix of bacterial reaction centers.
C. Rischel, D. Spiedel, J. P. Ridge, M. R. Jones, J. Breton, J.-C. Lambry, J.-L. Martin, and M. H. Vos (1998)
PNAS 95, 12306-12311
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)