Energy transfer in the core pigments of phycobilisomes from Mastigocladus laminosus as studied by temperature-dependent hole burning

Abstract

Persistent optical hole burning has been performed in the allophycocyanin band of phycobilisomes of Mastigocladus laminosus. The homogeneous transition line width has been obtained by a careful analysis of the hole-burning data. The dependence of the line width on temperature has been measured in the range 1.5-4.2 K. A lifetime-limited value of 1.08 A 0.21 GHz is obtained as a result of linear back extrapolation to T = 0 K. It corresponds to an energy transfer time of 147 f IS ps from allophycocyanin to the terminal emitters of the phycobilisome core.