Measurement and prediction of quantum coherence effects in biological processes

This themed issue presents a collection of articles on the measurement and prediction of quantum coherence effects in biological processes.

Quantum coherence effects in natural light-induced processes: cis–trans photoisomerization of model retinal under incoherent excitation

Cis–Trans isomerization of retinal induced by incoherent solar light. Shown are ground and excited-state diabatic potentials; the horizontal lines represent bright eigenstates (red), intermediate eigenstates (blue), and product eigenstates (green). The inset: the photoreaction efficiency vs. time with (red) and without (blue) Fano coherences.

Multiformality of 1st, 2nd and 3rd-order Subschemes of Four-Level Optical Quantum Coherence Systems

Many quantum optical and optoelectronic achievements have been obtained by using quantum coherence effects occurred in four-level quantum systems. Here we report a systemic study on the 1st, 2ndand 3rdorder subschemes of the four-level scheme with the aid of Boolean algebra, and find 7 1storder subschemes and 53 2ndorder subschemes in total. Further it is found that 472 3rd-order subschemes may appear in the realistic optical quantum coherence experiments when the applied lasers are distinguished only by the strong and weak field intensities.