Distribution of entanglement in light-harvesting complexes and their quantum efficiency

TL;DR

This study explores how entanglement distribution correlates with quantum efficiency in light-harvesting complexes, revealing an inverse relationship that suggests coherence may influence energy transfer efficiency.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative analysis of entanglement's role in photosynthetic energy transfer, focusing on the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex and its quantum yield.

Findings

Inverse relationship between quantum efficiency and entanglement between distant donors

Long-lasting electronic coherence may modulate light-harvesting function

Entanglement distribution impacts energy transfer efficiency

Abstract

Recent evidence of electronic coherence during energy transfer in photosynthetic antenna complexes has reinvigorated the discussion of whether coherence and/or entanglement has any practical functionality for these molecular systems. Here we investigate quantitative relationships between the quantum yield of a light-harvesting complex and the distribution of entanglement among its components. Our study focusses on the entanglement yield or average entanglement surviving a time scale comparable to the average excitation trapping time. As a prototype system we consider the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) protein of green sulphur bacteria and show that there is an inverse relationship between the quantum efficiency and the average entanglement between distant donor sites. Our results suggest that longlasting electronic coherence among distant donors might help modulation of the lightharvesting function.