Explaining Spectral Asymmetries and Excitonic Characters of the Core Pigment Pairs in the Bacterial Reaction Center Using a Screened Range-Separated Hybrid Functional.

Spectral peaks of the special pair (P) and adjacent pigments in the bacterial reaction center (BRC) are investigated computationally. We employ a novel framework based on a polarization-consistent treatment of the dielectric environment, combining the polarizable continuum model (PCM) with time-dependent screened range-separated hybrid (SRSH) density functional theory. Our calculations quantitatively reproduce recently measured spectral peak splits between P excitonic states and spectral asymmetries within the pairs of excited states of the adjacent bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) and bacteriopheophytin (BPhe) pigments. For the special pair, a splitting energy between the absorptive state and a blue-shifted semidark state of 0.07 eV is found in close agreement with the measured value. The spectral asymmetries within the pseudosymmetric pairs of BChl and BPhe pigments are interpreted to result from locally different effective dielectric environments in the A and the B branch, where the latter are exposed to a lesser polarizing environment. We base our analysis on X-ray-resolved structures and where the effect of neighboring pigments on the electronic structure is addressed through an effective dielectric environment. We show that the spectral trends are only reproduced using a polarization-consistent framework based on a screened range-separated hybrid functional, whereas B3LYP-PCM energies fail to provide the correct trends.