Recently, the coherent modified Redfield theory (CMRT) has been widely used to simulate the excitation-energy-transfer (EET) processes in photosynthetic systems. However, the numerical simulation of the CMRT is computationally expensive when dealing with large-scale systems, e.g. photosystem I (PSI) and II (PSII). On the other hand, the chemical reaction and fluorescence loss traditionally treated by the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian approach may result in significantly error in a wide range of parameters. To address these issues, we introduce a quantum jump approach (QJA) based on the CMRT to simulate the evolution of photosynthetic complexes including both the chemical reaction and fluorescence loss. The QJA shows higher accuracy and efficiency in simulating the EET processes. The QJA-CMRT approach may provide a powerful tool to design and optimize artificial photosynthetic systems, which benefits future innovation in the field of energy.
Recently, the coherent modified Redfield theory (CMRT) has been widely used to simulate the excitation-energy-transfer (EET) processes in photosynthetic systems. However, the numerical simulation of the CMRT is computationally expensive when dealing with large-scale systems, e.g. photosystem I (PSI) and II (PSII). On the other hand, the chemical reaction and fluorescence loss traditionally treated by the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian approach may result in significantly error in a wide range of parameters. To address these issues, we introduce a quantum jump approach (QJA) based on the CMRT to simulate the evolution of photosynthetic complexes including both the chemical reaction and fluorescence loss. The QJA shows higher accuracy and efficiency in simulating the EET processes. The QJA-CMRT approach may provide a powerful tool to design and optimize artificial photosynthetic systems, which benefits future innovation in the field of energy.
Many biological phenomena including avian navigation and photosynthesis manifest quantum coherent effects. In avian navigation, the weak geomagnetic field and spin-dependent chemical reactions are utilized for navigation. As one of the most important energy sources on earth, photosynthesis has always been a point of discussion for scientists. The study of energy transmission in photosynthetic systems can support the design or performance optimization of artificial light-harvesting devices. Currently, the quantum coherent effect has been observed in photosynthetic complexes, and the quantum efficiency of energy transmission in photosynthetic complexes is close to 100%. These important findings prompted many experts in different disciplines to use quantum physical methods to explore the physical mechanism behind the energy transmission in photosynthetic systems and the role of the quantum coherent effect in the exciton energy transmission in photosynthetic complexes. It has been proven that energy transfer in pigment-protein complexes is mainly in the form of coherent energy transfer. Moreover, the importance of the quantum coherent effect in energy transmission has been proven. Furthermore, several researchers have used the quantum coherent effect to improve energy transmission in photosynthetic systems and achieved some progress. For open quantum systems, such as photosynthetic systems, many theoretical methods have been proposed to analyze their quantum dynamics. These theoretical methods can be divided into two categories according to whether they can describe the diagonal term of the system density matrix, namely, coherent and incoherent theories. Moreover, the application conditions of these theoretical methods differ according to their established processes. Recently, with the progress in research, several groups have proposed several quantum simulation methods based on different quantum computing systems, including quantum simulation methods based on nuclear magnetic resonance systems, superconducting quantum circuit systems, and ion trap systems, to analyze the phenomena in photosynthetic systems. Compared with the traditional theoretical calculation methods, these quantum simulation methods have higher computational efficiency and lower computational complexity. This paper mainly reviews the progress in research on quantum coherent effects in photosynthesis and the related theoretical calculation and quantum simulation methods.
Excitation energy transfer (EET) plays a vital role in many areas of physics and biology processes. Here we address the role of quantum-jump-based feedback control in the efficiency of EET through a chain model. Usually, the decoherence caused by dissipative noise is detrimental to the transfer efficiency. We demonstrate that feedback control can always enhance the efficiency of EET and the dependence of different feedback controls is also discussed in detail. In addition, we investigate the strategy to enhance the efficiency of EET in the Fenna–Matthews–Olson complex as a prototype for larger photosynthetic energy transfer systems.
Many living organisms can exploit quantum mechanical effects to gain distinct biological advantages. In plants, photosynthesis uses quantum coherence to achieve near 100% efficiency in energy transfer. With advances in experimental techniques, two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy can reveal dynamic processes such as coherence and coupling within a system, and it plays an important role in studying energy transfer in photosynthesis. On the theory side, methods such as the generalized Bloch-Redfield theory and the hierarchical equations of motion are used to model photosynthetic systems. Quantum simulation, as a high-efficiency and low-complexity approach, has also made progress across various platforms in the study of photosynthesis. In recent years, a series of studies has introduced quantum coherence into artificial systems to enhance energy transfer efficiency, laying the groundwork for the design of coherent devices with efficient energy transport. Birds can use the weak geomagnetic field and spin-dependent chemical reactions to detect direction. Theoretical frameworks for animal navigation include magnetite-based mechanisms, magnetoreceptor genes, and the radical-pair mechanism. Quantum simulations of navigation have also advanced on multiple platforms. Inspired by animal navigation, diverse quantum effects have been applied to improve sensing and to support navigation tasks. This paper presents a comprehensive review of progress on quantum coherence in photosynthesis and avian navigation, along with related theoretical methods, quantum simulation approaches, and research on quantum coherent devices.
Abstract Near-unity energy transfer efficiency has been widely observed in natural photosynthetic complexes. This phenomenon has attracted broad interest from different fields, such as physics, biology, chemistry, and material science, as it may offer valuable insights into efficient solar-energy harvesting. Recently, quantum coherent effects have been discovered in photosynthetic light harvesting, and their potential role on energy transfer has seen the heated debate. Here, we perform an experimental quantum simulation of photosynthetic energy transfer using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). We show that an N-chromophore photosynthetic complex, with arbitrary structure and bath spectral density, can be effectively simulated by a system with log2N qubits. The computational cost of simulating such a system with a theoretical tool, like the hierarchical equation of motion, which is exponential in N, can be potentially reduced to requiring a just polynomial number of qubits N using NMR quantum simulation. The benefits of performing such quantum simulation in NMR are even greater when the spectral density is complex, as in natural photosynthetic complexes. These findings may shed light on quantum coherence in energy transfer and help to provide design principles for efficient artificial light harvesting.
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.
We propose a method to emulate the exciton energy transfer (EET) of photosynthetic complexes in a quantum superconducting circuit. Our system is composed of two pairs of superconducting charge qubits coupled to two separated high-Q superconducting transmission line resonators (TLRs), respectively. The two TLRs interact with each other capacitively. When the frequencies of the qubits are largely detuned from those of the TLRs, we simulate the process of EET from the first qubit to the fourth qubit. By tuning the couplings between the qubits and the TLRs, as well as the coupling between the two TLRs, we can modify the effective coupling strengths between the qubits and thus study the geometric effects on the EET. It is shown that a moderately clustered geometry supports optimal EET by using exciton delocalization and an energy matching condition. And the population loss during the EET has been trapped in the two TLRs.