2019/06/19 by Elinor Zerah-Harush, Yonatan Dubi, Zerah-Harush, Elinor +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Photochemistry and Electron Transfer Studies #Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1906.10231
openalex publication_date 2019/06/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Transport of excitons through transfer networks is a unique example where the interplay between quantum coherence and environment-induced dephasing leads to non-trivial effects. One exciting example is the "environment-assisted quantum transport", (ENAQT), where, counter intuitively, the environment interrupts quantum transport in a way that enhances the transfer efficiency. Here we show that the interplay between dephasing and quantum coherence can lead to an additional function in exciton transport - photo-protection, that is the reduction of current upon increased excitation. We start by demonstrating that even under weak coupling conditions, weak excitations can lead to multiple-exciton generation, thus going beyond the common single-exciton approximation. We then consider the transport of two excitons, and show that a interplay between dephasing and exciton-exciton interactions leads to a reduction in current, i.e. to photo-protection. The effect may be related to actual photo-protection observed in photosynthetic systems.