Robust ultrafast currents in molecular wires through Stark shifts

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a new method to generate ultrafast currents in molecular wires using laser-induced Stark shifts, offering a phase-controlled, efficient, and robust approach against electronic dephasing.

Contribution

It introduces a Stark shift-based mechanism for ultrafast current induction in molecular wires, differing from photon absorption methods.

Findings

Mechanism is highly efficient and robust to electronic dephasing.

Uses two laser frequencies, ω and 2ω, for phase-controllable transport.

Effective in trans-polyacetylene oligomers coupled to metallic leads.

Abstract

A novel way to induce ultrafast currents in molecular wires using two incident laser frequencies, $\omega$ and $2\omega$, is demonstrated. The mechanism relies on Stark shifts, instead of photon absorption, to transfer population to the excited states and exploits the temporal profile of the field to generate phase controllable transport. Calculations in a \emph{trans}-polyacetylene oligomer coupled to metallic leads indicate that the mechanism is highly efficient and robust to ultrafast electronic dephasing processes induced by vibronic couplings.