Definition of a Pigment Molecule
June 24th, 2005 | No Comments »A lesson of this work may lead to a new definition of a pigment molecule. I might propose that such an “optical wavelength-defining color center” is composed of a quantum-confined electron center (the “absorbing mass”) surrounded by a space whose dimensions (”optical antenna dimensions”) determine the wavelength of optical interaction. Further, I might guess that this surrounding space supports lossless transport of energy and it’s extent (larger to interact with, or emit, long wavelengths) becomes increasingly more difficult to obtain (as in the difficulty in developing red phosphors). In the thylakoid disks of retinal receptors I believe that energy transport in the membrane structure is solitonic mediated by the cholesterol-intercalated lipid membrane structure (mimicking Hans Kuhn’s “photon funnel” result).
I might propose that the actual role of the various retinal/opsin “pigments” that have been identified is actually spatial, i.e., to determine the extent of this surrounding spatial region
I note again that the visible luminescence in the “porous silicon” optically interactive nanostructure occurs without any pigment molecule being present …only inert silicon “pillars” and variable space between them.
