Figure shows the transient absorption kinetics of both the chromophore and LHC after 400nm excitation. The 525 nm probe wavelength corresponds to the ground-state bleach band of the molecules, which monitors the depletion of the groundstate population due to the presence of excited or other species. The decay curves are fit with a multi-exponential model, with fit parameters given in Table . The kinetics of the two molecules are quite similar, dominated by a simple exponential decay. Interestingly, the peak magnitude of the bleach signal does not occur immediately after the initial excitation, but evolves in over ∼30 ps, and is more evident in the kinetics of the chromophore. This is not attributed to spectral evolution, such as red shifting of the absorption peak, as the spectral shape remaining effectively constant over the lifetime of the experiment (ESI). This may be attributed to a solvation effect, where the solvent molecules rearrange due to the changed transition dipole moment of the excited species. The more crowded nature of the LHC configuration restricts access by solvent molecules to the individual chromophore units, which can explain the reduced effect in the LHC compared to the free chromophores in solution. Recovery from the ground-state bleaching is marginally faster in the LHC, and is consistent with the time-resolved fluorescence data shown in the ESI. Please do not adjust margins Please do not adjust margins The faster decay can be explained by the complex having more non-radiative relaxation pathways, such as vibrational degrees of freedom.