Electric-field assisted optimal quantum transport of photo-excitations in polar heterostructures

TL;DR

This study investigates how electric fields influence quantum transport efficiency in polar heterostructures, revealing optimal conditions for charge transfer that enhance photon-harvesting device performance.

Contribution

It demonstrates the role of electric fields in optimizing quantum transport in TMO heterostructures, highlighting the interplay between coupling strength and coherence effects.

Findings

Optimal transfer time depends on electric field and coupling strength.

Electric field can be tuned to maximize quantum transport efficiency.

Superradiant transition remains unaffected by electric field.

Abstract

Transition-metal-oxide (TMO) heterostructures are promising candidates for building photon-harvesting devices which can exploit optimal quantum transport of charge excitations generated by light absorption. Here we address the explicit role of an electric field on the quantum transport properties of photo-excitations subject to dephasing in one-dimensional chains coupled to a continuum of states acting as a sink. We show that the average transfer time to the sink is optimized for suitable values of both the coupling strength to the sink and the electric field, thus fully exploiting the coherence-enhanced efficiency in the quantum transport regime achievable in few monolayers TMO heterostructures. The optimal coupling to the continuum remains approximately the same as that in absence of electric field and is characterizing the Superradiant Transition. On the other hand, the optimal electric field for which we provide estimates using an analytical expression is dependent on the initial state.