Non-adiabatic control of quantum energy transfer in ordered and disordered arrays

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to control quantum energy transfer in ordered and disordered arrays by applying transient external potentials that manipulate the phase of quantum states, enabling acceleration, deceleration, and focusing of excitations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel phase-based control technique combining adiabatic and sudden dynamics to manipulate quantum energy transfer in complex systems.

Findings

Phase transformations can accelerate or decelerate energy transfer.

The technique enables focusing of excitations onto specific regions.

Control remains effective even in disordered systems.

Abstract

An elementary excitation in an aggregate of coupled particles generates a collective excited state. We show that the dynamics of these excitations can be controlled by applying a transient external potential which modifies the phase of the quantum states of the individual particles. The method is based on an interplay of adiabatic and sudden time scales in the quantum evolution of the many-body states. We show that specific phase transformations can be used to accelerate or decelerate quantum energy transfer and spatially focus delocalized excitations onto different parts of arrays of quantum particles. We consider possible experimental implementations of the proposed technique and study the effect of disorder due to the presence of impurities on its fidelity. We further show that the proposed technique can allow control of energy transfer in completely disordered systems.