Relationship between Excited State Lifetime and Isomerization Quantum Yield in Animal Rhodopsins: Beyond the One-Dimensional Landau–Zener Model

We show that the speed of the chromophore photoisomerization of animal rhodopsins is not a relevant control knob for their light sensitivity. This result is at odds with the momentum-driven tunnelling rationale (i.e., assuming a one-dimensional Landau–Zener model for the decay: Zener, C. Non-Adiabatic Crossing of Energy Levels. <i>Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A</i> <b>1932,</b> 137 (833), 696–702) holding that a faster nuclear motion through the conical intersection translates into a higher quantum yield and, thus, light sensitivity. Instead, a model based on the phase-matching of specific excited state vibrational modes should be considered. Using extensive semiclassical hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics trajectory computations to simulate the photoisomerization of three animal rhodopsin models (visual rhodopsin, squid rhodopsin and human melanopsin), we also demonstrate that phase-matching between three different modes (the reactive carbon and hydrogen twisting coordinates and the bond length alternation mode) is required to achieve high quantum yields. In fact, such “phase-matching” mechanism explains the computational results and provides a tool for the prediction of the photoisomerization outcome in retinal proteins