The idea of engineering artificial molecular devices that mimic natural photosynthesis dates back to 1912, when it was first proposed by Italian photochemist Giacomo Ciamician [1]. However, the concept didn’t move forward then because it was unclear how natural photosynthesis worked at the molecular level. More than a century later, experimental and theoretical advances are allowing researchers to fill this knowledge gap, and the improved understanding of the natural process is leading to the design of artificial molecular complexes that can efficiently capture the energy from sunlight [2, 3]. In this context, Andrea Mattioni of Ulm University, Germany, and colleagues have identified design principles for engineering light-harvesting membranes whose performance can be optimized by controlling quantum dynamics at the molecular level [4]. Such design principles are based on the counterintuitive result that, even at room temperature, quantum effects can be harnessed to optimize energy transport (Fig. 1). Specifically, the researchers’ calculations suggest that the temporal and spatial scales of energy transfer in these membranes can be tuned by controlling how excitons—collective electron-hole states that dominate energy transport in these systems—become delocalized over the unit cells that make up the membranes.
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