The quantum Goldilocks effect: on the convergence of timescales in quantum transport

Understand

Excitonic transport in photosynthesis exhibits a wide range of time scales.

• Absorption and initial relaxation takes place over tens of femtoseconds.
• Excitonic lifetimes are on the order of a nanosecond.
• Hopping rates, energy differences between chromophores, reorganization energies, and decoherence rates correspond to time scales on the order of picoseconds.