Environmentally improved coherent light harvesting

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that increasing system-bath coupling strength can amplify coherence-enhanced light harvesting, broadening experimental and engineering possibilities for artificial systems.

Contribution

It reveals that stronger system-bath interactions can enhance coherence effects, challenging previous assumptions about their suppression in light-harvesting systems.

Findings

Increased system-bath coupling amplifies coherence effects.

Coherence-enhanced efficiency can be controlled via environmental interactions.

Broader range of systems can exhibit coherence-enhanced light harvesting.

Abstract

Coherence-enhanced light harvesting has not been directly observed experimentally, despite theoretical evidence that coherence can significantly enhance light-harvesting performance. The main experimental obstacle has been the difficulty in isolating the effect of coherence in the presence of confounding variables. Recent proposals for externally controlling coherence by manipulating the light's degree of polarization showed that coherent efficiency enhancements would be possible, but were restricted to light-harvesting systems weakly coupled to their environment. Here, we show that increases in system-bath coupling strength can amplify coherent efficiency enhancements, rather than suppress them. This result dramatically broadens the range of systems that could be used to conclusively demonstrate coherence-enhanced light harvesting or to engineer coherent effects into artificial light-harvesting devices.