Generation of photocurrent from Photosystem I biomolecular complexes

Abstract

Photosynthetic proteins are used in organic devices to generate photocurrent. A setup consisting of a monochromator and lock-in amplifiers is used to measure the photocurrent along with an HP4156 analyzer. Atomic force microscopy images are also taken including those taken with a voltage-biased tip. Some devices are shown to work initially under illumination and then fail upon subsequent illumination. A charge trapping mechanism is postulated to cause the failure. Nonetheless, the devices hold enormous potential and the preliminary results show that research in this area will be fruitful, even though evaporation of protective layers does not usually yield functional devices.