Abstract
I HAVE proposed1 that coherent storage of absorbed light energy in optically non-active modes may be important in photosynthesis. For in this way energy could be transferred to electrons—initiating chemical processes—in steps of more than one quantum of the storage mode. Clearly it would be desirable to devise model experiments that might provide evidence for the existence of such storage modes. Theoretical conditions for their establishment require the excitons excited by light absorption to be strongly scattered in a manner which favours non-linear processes. This suggests the use of amorphous insulating materials in the form of microscopic particles deposited on a metal surface and coated with a thin metal layer. If light absorbed in the absorption bands of this material is stored in storage modes, then transfer of more than one storage mode quantum (which has less energy than the light quantum) at a single step should be observable in terms of photoelectric emission. From theoretical considerations this should hold at light intensities above a critical value.
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References
Fröhlich, H., Nature, 219, 743 (1968).
Knox, R. S., Nature, 221, 263 (1969).
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FRöHLICH, H. Proposed Model Experiments on the Storage of Light Energy in Photosynthesis. Nature 221, 976 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/221976b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/221976b0
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