Geometrical effects on energy transfer in disordered open quantum systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how geometrical arrangements influence energy transfer efficiency in disordered quantum systems, revealing natural optimization patterns and correlations in small light-harvesting complexes.

Contribution

It introduces new insights into the role of geometry and spatial properties in optimizing quantum energy transfer in complex disordered systems.

Findings

Efficiency saturates at 7 and 14 chromophores in specific spatial dimensions.

Strong correlations found between efficiency and ground state properties.

Optimum chromophore numbers align with natural light-harvesting complexes.

Abstract

We explore various design principles for efficient excitation energy transport in complex quantum systems. We investigate energy transfer efficiency in randomly disordered geometries consisting of up to 20 chromophores to explore spatial and spectral properties of small natural/artificial Light-Harvesting Complexes (LHC). We find significant statistical correlations among highly efficient random structures with respect to ground state properties, excitonic energy gaps, multichromophoric spatial connectivity, and path strengths. These correlations can even exist beyond the optimal regime of environment-assisted quantum transport. For random configurations embedded in spatial dimensions of 30 A and 50 A, we observe that the transport efficiency saturates to its maximum value if the systems contain 7 and 14 chromophores respectively. Remarkably, these optimum values coincide with the number of chlorophylls in (Fenna-Matthews-Olson) FMO protein complex and LHC II monomers, respectively, suggesting a potential natural optimization with respect to chromophoric density.