Expérimental
In order to maximize the absorption and harvesting of photons towards photochemical reaction centres capable of splitting water into chemical fuels, Nature has performed an impressive quantum engineering of photosynthetic pigments, also called light harvesting complexes (LHCs). In these complex 3D arrangements of chlorophyll and carotenoid molecules, templated by proteins, quantum transition dipoles are coherently coupled in a strong coupling regime leading to optimized absorption cross-sections and allowing spectral tuning covering the red to near-infrared range. The aim of this project is to develop a new family of biomimetic photosynthetic pigments by substituting the protein template of LHCs with an artificial DNA nanostructure (also called DNA origami) and the chlorophyll molecules by synthetic cyanine dyes. The biomimetic molecular aggregates willbe used as new building blocks for artificial photosynthetic systems in which energy harvesting is optimized over the entire visible range but also optimized quantum emitters for coherent light-matter interactions at room temperature when coupled to an optical resonator.