Excitonic couplings and interband energy transfer in a double-wall molecular aggregate imaged by coherent two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy

The early stage of molecular excitonics and its quantum-kinetic dynamics in the multiband, bitubular cyanine dye aggregate C8O3 at room temperature are revealed by employing two-dimensional (2D) coherent electronic spectroscopy in the visible spectral region. The sub-20 fs measurements provide a direct look into the details of elementary electronic couplings by spreading spectroscopic transitions into two frequency axes. Correlation spectra of rephasing (k(I)=-k(1)+k(2)+k(3)) and nonrephasing (k(II)=+k(1)-k(2)+k(3)) data in emission (omega(3))-absorption (omega(1)) 2D-frequency space image interband excitons into cross-peak signals and unveil the quantum-dissipative regime of exciton relaxation. Spectral streaking of cross peaks directly reveals interband dephasing and exciton population relaxation on the road to tube-to-tube energy transfer without making recourse to an a priori model. Theory and simulations, based on an effective multilevel scheme and a quantum-dissipative model with experimental pulse envelopes, explain the origin of the cross peaks, reveal the underlying sequences of electronic transitions, recover the streaking patterns of relaxing cross peaks along omega(1), and reconstruct the space-energy pathways of electronic excitation flow.