Photosynthesis: Gathering Sunshine with the World’s Smallest Antennas

Research on photosynthetic antenna complexes illuminates how they harvest light in plants, algae and bacteria. This work, posted as a featured articleon the Office of Science’s website, was supported in part by the Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC) EFRC led by Robert Blankenship at Washington University in St. Louis.

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A metallic line atop a medium biased at the edge of chaos can provide effective negative resistance for time-varying signals, outputting a larger signal compared to its input. The energy for amplification comes from the static bias applied to the medium.

The “Edge of Chaos” Amplifies Signals Without Transistors

Emulating the edge of chaos of axons enables a metal wire to overcome its resistance without cooling, thereby amplifying signals flowing inside of it.

Infrared laser light (red beam) illuminates the surface of ZrSiSe and mixes with electron oscillations enabled by an atomic force microscope (silver cone), propagating light as ray-like structures that guide the light through the interior (blue zig-zag).

What If Metals Could Conduct Light?

In the unusual world of quantum materials, metals can guide light in their interiors instead of merely reflecting it.