Higher Order Vibronic Sidebands of Chlorophyll a and Bacteriochlorophyll a for Enhanced Excitation Energy Transfer and Light Harvesting

Optical absorption and fluorescence spectra of molecules in condensed phases often show extensive sidebands. Originating from electron-vibrational and electron-phonon couplings, these spectral tails bear important information on the dynamics of electronic states and processes the molecules are involved in. The vibronic sidebands observed in conjugate Q(y) absorption and fluorescence spectra of chlorophyll a and bacteriochlorophyll a are relatively weak, characterized by the total Huang-Rhys factor which is less than one. Therefore, it is widely considered that only fundamental intramolecular modes are responsible for their formation. Here, we provide evidence for extra-long and structured fluorescence tails of chlorophyll a and bacteriochlorophyll a as far as 4000 cm(-1) from respective spectral origins, far beyond the frequency range of fundamental modes. According to quantum chemical simulations, these sidebands extending to similar to 960 nm in chlorophyll a and similar to 1140 nm in bacteriochlorophyll a into the infrared part of the optical spectrum are mainly contributed to by vibrational overtones of the fundamental modes. Because energy transfer and relaxation processes generally depend on vibronic overlap integrals, these findings potentially contribute to better understanding of many vital photo-induced phenomena, including photosynthetic light harvesting.