Application of the density matrix method to spectroscopy and dynamics of photosynthetic reaction centers

The density matrix method is well known for being useful to theoretically t reat complicated phenomena. In this work,this method will be applied to stu dy the ultrafast energy and electron transfers in photosynthetic reaction c enters. We present a microscopic model to describe the spectroscopy and dyn amics for photosynthetic bacterial reaction centers (RCs). In this model, w e propose eight vibrational modes and their Huang-Rhys factors for differen t electronic states, and the couplings between the electronic states. As ap plications, we have constructed steady-state and ultrafast time-resolved sp ectra for the wild-type RC of Rhodobacter (Rb.) sphaeroides. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.