Journal
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
Volume 143, Issue 15, Pages -Publisher
AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1063/1.4932307
Keywords
-
Funding
- ERC Synergy grant BioQ
- EU STREP PAPETS and QUCHIP
- DFG [SFB TR/21]
- Alexander von Humboldt professorship
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Recent evidence suggests that quantum effects may have functional importance in biological light-harvesting systems. Along with delocalized electronic excitations, it is now suspected that quantum coherent interactions with certain near-resonant vibrations may contribute to light-harvesting performance. However, the actual quantum advantage offered by such coherent vibrational interactions has not yet been established. We investigate a quantum design principle, whereby coherent exchange of single energy quanta between electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom can enhance a light-harvesting system's power above what is possible by thermal mechanisms alone. We present a prototype quantum heat engine which cleanly illustrates this quantum design principle and quantifies its quantum advantage using thermodynamic measures of performance. We also demonstrate the principle's relevance in parameter regimes connected to natural light-harvesting structures. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available