Quantum State Tuning of Energy Transfer in a Correlated Environment

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum coherence and correlated environmental fluctuations influence energy transfer efficiency in light-harvesting systems, revealing potential for tuning transfer processes at room temperature.

Contribution

It introduces a model considering correlated bath fluctuations in multichromophoric systems, demonstrating their impact on energy transfer dynamics and efficiency.

Findings

Quantum coherence enhances energy transfer at room temperature.

Correlated fluctuations depend on symmetry and exciton delocalization.

Quantum features enable fine-tuning of energy transfer in light-harvesting complexes.

Abstract

We investigate multichromophoric energy transfer allowing for bath-induced fluctuations at different sites to be correlated. As a prototype system we consider a light-harvesting antenna surrounding a reaction center. We show that the interplay between quantum coherence and correlated fluctuations can generate a room temperature transfer process featuring a marked dependence on the degree of symmetry and delocalization of the initial exciton state. Our work illustrates how these quantum features could support fine tuning of energy transfer efficiencies in closely-packed natural and artificial light-harvesting complexes