Probing and controlling photosynthetic analogues with single chemical bond precision

Charge and energy transfer between the donor and acceptor groups in molecular dyads underpin a remarkable variety of essential biochemical and biophysical processes. Foremost among these is photosynthesis (and the broader phenomenon of photochemical energy conversion); there is a long-standing, yet still rapidly expanding, international research effort focussed on understanding photosynthetic activity and extending the relevant chemical pathways to nanostructured systems and devices. This project involves the imaging and spectroscopic analysis of artificial photosynthetic analogues (dyads) at the single molecule (and submolecular) level using scanning probe techniques.