Using Electromagnetic Theory and Biological Experiments to Study the Optical Properties of Photosynthesis Structures in Plants
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Chang, Shiou-Pang
Abstract
Photosynthesis of plants is the primary sun energy harvesting mechanism on the earth, and it is one off the most important and efficient bio-chemical reactions for all features. Grana is a cylindrical structure stacked by layers of thylakoid membranes in chloroplasts and it can be seen as an diffractive optical element which can catch light energy. Furthermore, the stacked membranes are like the waveguides or resonators for light. The diameter and stacked number of grana are two important key parameters for specific wavelength light absorption. The tobacco is chosen for our study. To explain its optical diffraction characteristics, we use electromagnetic simulation and take the biology experiments. We set four light conditions using different LEDs (light emitting diodes), which are red LED (wavelength 640 nm), green LED (wavelength 520 nm), blue LED (wavelength 460 nm), and mixed light treatments. The TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) photos are taken and the statistics analyses are given. To know the modes in the grana with different structure parameters for different light wavelength, FDTD (Finite-Difference Time-Domain) and FEM (finite Element Method) simulations were used to calculate the fields and absorbed energy of different grana structures. Our results can be used to explain the optical diffraction characteristics of chloroplasts in plants during photosynthesis, and the physical modeling we established forms the basis to design biomimetric devices for solar energy harvesting in the future.
Subjects
photosynthesis
finite-difference time-domain
finite element method
biophotonic
grana
thylakoid
Type
thesis
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