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arXiv:2311.02020 · npj Quantum Information

Simulating photosynthetic energy transport on a photonic network

Hao Long Tang, Xiao-Wen Shang, Zi-Yu Shi, Tian-Shen He, Zhen Feng, Tianyu Wang, Ruoxi Shi, Hui-Ming Wang, Xi Tan, Xiao-Yun Xu, Yao Wang, Jun Gao, M. S. Kim, Xian‐Min Jin

Published Mar 11, 2024• 14 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Quantum effects in photosynthetic energy transport in nature, especially for the typical Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complexes, are extensively studied in quantum biology. Such energy transport processes can be investigated as open quantum systems that blend the quantum coherence and environmental noise, and have been experimentally simulated on a few quantum devices. However, the existing experiments always lack a solid quantum simulation for the FMO energy transport due to their constraints to map a variety of issues in actual FMO complexes that have rich biological meanings. Here we successfully map the full coupling profile of the seven-site FMO structure by comprehensive characterisation and precise control of the evanescent coupling of the three-dimensional waveguide array. By applying a stochastic dynamical modulation on each waveguide, we introduce the base site energy and the dephasing term in coloured noise to faithfully simulate the power spectral density of the FMO complexes. We show our photonic model well interprets the phenomena including reorganisation energy, vibrational assistance, exciton transfer and energy localisation. We further experimentally demonstrate the existence of an optimal transport efficiency at certain dephasing strength, providing a window to closely investigate environment-assisted quantum transport.

DOI
10.1038/s41534-024-00824-x

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Abstract Quantum effects in photosynthetic energy transport in nature, especially for the typical Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complexes, are extensively studied in quantum biology. Such energy transport processes can be investigated as open quantum systems that blend the quantum coherence and environmental noise, and have been experimentally simulated on a few quantum devices. However, the existing experiments always lack a solid quantum simulation for the FMO energy transport due to their constraints to map a variety of issues in actual FMO complexes that have rich biological meanings. Here we successfully map the full coupling profile of the seven-site FMO structure by comprehensive characterisation and precise control of the evanescent coupling of the three-dimensional waveguide array. By applying a stochastic dynamical modulation on each waveguide, we introduce the base site energy and the dephasing term in coloured noise to faithfully simulate the power spectral density of the FMO complexes. We show our photonic model well interprets the phenomena including reorganisation energy, vibrational assistance, exciton transfer and energy localisation. We further experimentally demonstrate the existence of an optimal transport efficiency at certain dephasing strength, providing a window to closely investigate environment-assisted quantum transport.
In this work, energy transfer in the photosynthetic process was studied from a quantum perspective, using the Fenna–Matthews–Olson (FMO) complex as a model. The density operator formalism and the Lindblad master equation were employed to describe the non-unitary dynamics of an open system subject to injection, extraction, and decoherence processes. A two-level system and a three-site FMO complex were analyzed, allowing the study of phenomena such as Rabi oscillations, environment-induced coherence loss, and the emergence of Environment-Assisted Quantum Transport (ENAQT). Through numerical simulations, exciton and heat currents, von Neumann entropy, global and intersite entanglement, and energy transfer efficiency were calculated. The results show that, far from being an obstacle, the interaction with the environment can enhance photosynthetic efficiency under intermediate noise regimes, thus validating the ENAQT hypothesis. This study confirms that photosynthetic systems exploit a delicate balance between coherence and decoherence to optimize energy transport.
Transport phenomena are ubiquitous throughout the science, engineering and technology disciplines as it concerns energy, mass, charge and information exchange between systems.In particular, energy transport in the nanoscale regime has attracted significant attention within the physical science community due to its potential to explain complex phenomena like the electronic energy transfer in molecular crystals or the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) / light harvesting complexes in photosynthetic bacteria with long time coherences.Energy transport in these systems is highly affected by environmental noise but surprisingly not always in a detrimental way.It was recently found that situations exist where noise actually enhances the transport phenomena.Such noise can take many forms, but can be characterised in three basic behaviours: quantum, correlation in time, or space.All have been shown potential to offer an energy transport enhancement.The focus of this work is on quantum transport caused by stochastic environment with spatio-temporal correlation.We consider a multi-site nearest neighbour interaction model with pure dephasing environmental noise with spatio-temporal correlation and show how an accelerated rate for the energy transfer results especially under negative spatial correlation (anti-correlation).Spatial anti-correlation provides another control parameter to help one establish the most efficient transfer of energy and may provide new insights into the working of exciton transport in photosynthetic complexes.Further the usage of spatio-temporal correlated noise may be a beneficial resource for efficient transport in large scale quantum networks.
Abstract Transport phenomena are ubiquitous throughout the science, engineering, and technology disciplines as it concerns energy, mass, charge, and information exchange between systems. In particular, energy transport in the nanoscale regime has attracted significant attention within the physical science community due to its potential to explain complex phenomena like the electronic energy transfer in molecular crystals or the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO)/light harvesting complexes in photosynthetic bacteria with long time coherences. Energy transport in these systems is highly affected by environmental noise but surprisingly not always in a detrimental way. It was recently found that situations exist where noise actually enhances the transport phenomena. Such noise can take many forms, but can be characterised in three basic behaviors: quantum, correlation in time, or space. All have been shown potential to offer an energy transport enhancement. The focus of this work is on quantum transport caused by stochastic environment with spatio-temporal correlation. We consider a multi-site nearest neighbor interaction model with pure dephasing environmental noise with spatio-temporal correlation and show how an accelerated rate for the energy transfer results especially under negative spatial correlation (anti-correlation). Spatial anti-correlation provides another control parameter to help one establish the most efficient transfer of energy and may provide new insights into the working of exciton transport in photosynthetic complexes. Further the usage of spatio-temporal correlated noise may be a beneficial resource for efficient transport in large scale quantum networks.
Open quantum system approaches are widely used in the description of physical, chemical and biological systems. A famous example is electronic excitation transfer in the initial stage of photosynthesis, where harvested energy is transferred with remarkably high efficiency to a reaction center. This transport is affected by the motion of a structured vibrational environment, which makes simulations on a classical computer very demanding. Here we propose an analog quantum simulator of complex open system dynamics with a precisely engineered quantum environment. Our setup is based on superconducting circuits, a well established technology. As an example, we demonstrate that it is feasible to simulate exciton transport in the Fenna–Matthews–Olson photosynthetic complex. Our approach allows for a controllable single-molecule simulation and the investigation of energy transfer pathways as well as non-Markovian noise-correlation effects.
Environment assisted quantum transport (ENAQT) has been found to increase efficiency of energy transfer in open quantum systems. Chemical complexes like the photosynthetic Fenna-Mathews-Olson (FMO) complex exhibit such phenomenon. ENAQT in the FMO complex has been simulated on analog quantum simulators. However, digital quantum simulators are universal models for quantum simulation and offer greater flexibility over analog simulations. Here we develop the theoretical framework for digital quantum simulation of ENAQT in open quantum systems with tunable bath coupling. The main challenge in developing theoretical models for digital quantum simulation is that the solutions to the quantum master equation are unknown. We give an exact analytical solution for the Lindblad master equation for ENAQT and develop time evolution operators and evolution equation to solve the system. We apply the evolution equation to give a theoretical model for digital quantum simulation of the FMO complex and reproduce the high efficiency and temperature dependence of the dynamics in the complex
Transport phenomena in photosynthetic systems have attracted a great deal of attention due to their potential role in devising novel photovoltaic materials. In particular, energy transport in light-harvesting complexes is considered quite efficient due to the balance between coherent quantum evolution and decoherence, a phenomenon coined Environment-Assisted Quantum Transport (ENAQT). Although this effect has been extensively studied, its behavior is typically described in terms of the decoherence’s strength, namely weak, moderate or strong. Here, we study the ENAQT in terms of quantum correlations that go beyond entanglement. Using a subsystem of the Fenna–Matthews–Olson complex, we find that discord-like correlations maximize when the subsystem’s transport efficiency increases, while the entanglement between sites vanishes. Our results suggest that quantum discord is a manifestation of the ENAQT and highlight the importance of beyond-entanglement correlations in photosynthetic energy transport processes.