Abstract

Over the past decade the field of femtosecond spectroscopy of electronic and vibration excitations and their dynamics has received much attention. Various research groups have reported observations of oscillating components when exciting (in one photon transitions) either electronic or vibration states of large molecules in solution phase. Ascertainment of coherent effects in large molecules and complex biological structures have lead to speculation about the relevance of coherent excitations (quantum coherences) for the mechanism of ultra-fast chemical and biological reactions and, finally, resulted in exciting discovery. The way energy passes across giant protein matrices in photosynthesis was found to depend on long-lasting quantum coherence [1]. This discovery necessitated an increasing demand for new methods of the characterization of quantum states and adequate treatment (description) of the coherent light-matter interaction, including both electronic and nuclear coherences in complex quantum systems.

© 2013 IEEE