Structure-Assisted Super-radiance (SR) from Multichromophoric Virus in Physiological Conditions

Room-temperature (RT) super-radiance (SR) was observed from an icosahedral virus chemically conjugated with fluorescent dyes. A near-saturation dye concentration not only facilitates sufficient coupling between neighboring emitters but also enhances the stability of the virus template structure. The well-defined virus shell structure is proposed to play a critical role in overcoming dephasing and enabling RT SR in a physiological environment. Single-particle photobleaching studies reveal a distinctive bleaching feature with a longer survival time from the higher-labeled virus-like particles (VLPs), indicating that at least a subset of the dye ensemble resides in a tightly protected environment. Moreover, by transient absorption spectroscopy, we observe oscillations around 1 cm⁻¹ wavenumber in densely labeled VLPs, which is consistent with the presence of an acoustic phonon coupling into electronic states.