Science Daily May 3, 2023
Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons enables frictionless energy transfer, but typically occurs under extreme conditions in highly ordered materials, such as graphene double layers. Photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes demonstrate extremely efficient transfer of energy in disordered systems under ambient conditions. Researchers at the University of Chicago established a link between the two phenomena by investigating the potential for exciton-condensate-like amplification of energy transport in room-temperature light harvesting. Using a model of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex and accounting for intrachromophore electron correlation explicitly through the addition of multiple sites to the individual chromophores, they observed amplification of the exciton population in the particle-hole reduced density matrix through an exciton-condensate-like mechanism. The exciton-condensate-like amplification evolved with the dynamics of exciton transfer, and the nature of amplification was influenced by intra- and interchromophore entanglement, and the initial excitation model and number of sites per chromophore. Tuning intrachromophore coupling also increased the rate of exciton transfer with a maximum enhancement of nearly 100%. According to the researchers their research provides fundamental connections between exciton condensation and exciton transport in light-harvesting complexes with potential applications for harnessing the exciton-condensate-like mechanism to enhance energy transfer in synthetic systems and create new materials capable of highly efficient energy transfer… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Breakdown of the deexcitation populations for chromophores… Credit: PRX Energy 2, 023002, 28 April 2023