INHOMOGENEOUS ELECTRON-TRANSFER KINETICS IN REACTION CENTERS OF BACTERIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Based on the idea of conformational substates in proteins, we have ana lyzed the non-single exponential kinetics of an electron transfer syst em in terms of inhomogeneous width and thermal-energy fluctuation. A s imple theoretical expression for the average lifetime for electron tra nsfer has been derived together with the concept of ''apparent'' reorg anization energy. These expressions provide insight into the efficienc y of primary charge separation in the bacterial photosynthetic reactio n center.