Light Energy Driven Nanocommunications With FRET in Photosynthetic Systems

Abstract

Chlorophylls and carotenoids, key components of photosynthetic systems, are proposed for molecular communications at the nanoscale with the mechanism of resonance energy transfer. Both types of pigments are introduced focusing on their exceptional properties like energy harvesting, ultra-low energy consumption during transmissions, picoseconds delays, an ability for signal conversions, and biocompatibility. The theoretical considerations are supported by two spectroscopic experiments on the photosystem II complex. The first experiment aims at the description of the photosystem II including calculation of the energy transfer efficiency between carotenoids and chlorophylls. In the second one, the photochemical efficiency is estimated, showing how effective the chlorophylls are in further energy processing. With the experimentally determined values, communication and energetic performance are analyzed, the probability of channel blockage is calculated and the energy consumption per bit is estimated. Treating carotenoid molecules as transmitters, chlorophylls as receivers, and the energy transfer between them as a way to encode information, a throughput up to 1 Gbit/s is achievable with a bit error rate below 10-3 , average transmission delays about 20 ps, and energy consumption c.a. 2.0×10-18 J/bit. These results indicate a high potential of photosynthetic systems for nanocommunications and other related applications, due to suitable energetic characteristics in terms of energy harvesting abilities and low consumption for data transmissions.

Modelling photosystem I as a complex interacting network

“…The value of R 0 changes according to the nature of the connected nodes i and j. The values of R 0 between CLA → CLA, CLA → P700, CLB → CLA, CLB → P700, CAR → CLA and CAR → P700 have been obtained directly from the literature [45][46][47][48]. The R 0 of all CAR molecules towards other types of chromophores is approximated by the R 0 of BCR [48].…”

“…The values of R 0 between CLA → CLA, CLA → P700, CLB → CLA, CLB → P700, CAR → CLA and CAR → P700 have been obtained directly from the literature [45][46][47][48]. The R 0 of all CAR molecules towards other types of chromophores is approximated by the R 0 of BCR [48]. R 0 for CLA → CLB is calculated considering that the Forster rate of CLA → CLB is approximately 1/16 of CLB → CLA [41].…”