Non-equilibrium exciton dynamics in tailored molecular potentials of Rydberg ion crystals

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of Rydberg ion crystals with tailored molecular potentials to simulate non-equilibrium exciton dynamics, providing insights into exciton transport mechanisms beyond current computational capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum simulation approach using trapped ions with state-dependent potentials to study complex exciton dynamics in non-perturbative regimes.

Findings

Demonstrates the feasibility of simulating exciton transport with three trapped ions.

Shows potential to scale to hundreds of ions for complex quantum simulations.

Provides a framework for understanding biochemical-like processes in a controllable quantum system.

Abstract

Trapped ions excited to high-lying electronic states combine strongly coupled collective vibrational and electronic degrees of freedom with long-ranged interparticle interactions. These ingredients enable the quantum simulation of biochemical processes, associated with the dynamics of excitons in non-perturbative parameter regimes. The key feature of such a quantum simulator are electronic-state-dependent molecular potential surfaces which can be strongly coupled. This allows to shed light on a variety of mechanisms underlying exciton transport. We illustrate this in a system of three trapped ions, which is amenable to an ab initio treatment. Given that ion traps can be routinely prepared with hundreds of ions, these quantum simulators can immediately realise scenarios which are inaccessible by current numerical methods.