Coherent control of energy transport in a non-equilibrium steady-state (NESS) in a reaction-center-connected donor-acceptor pair is proposed. The pigments are considered to be continuously interacting with incoherent radiation and a phonon bath while being driven by phase-controlled coherent fields. Coherent excitation of the donor-acceptor pair is shown to induce interference between excitation pathways, resulting in phase dependent modulation of the flux. As a consequence one can enhance or suppress energy transfer via interference, e.g. an optical energy switch. The persistence of such interference enables coherent control at a NESS in dissipative regime suggests an extension of the operational scope of quantum control from traditional transient domain with low dissiaption to noisy environment NESS at room temperature.
Coherent control of energy transport in a non-equilibrium steady-state (NESS) in a reaction-center-connected donor-acceptor pair is proposed. The pigments are considered to be continuously interacting with incoherent radiation and a phonon bath while being driven by phase-controlled coherent fields. Coherent excitation of the donor-acceptor pair is shown to induce interference between excitation pathways, resulting in phase dependent modulation of the flux. As a consequence one can enhance or suppress energy transfer via interference, e.g. an optical energy switch. The persistence of such interference enables coherent control at a NESS in dissipative regime suggests an extension of the operational scope of quantum control from traditional transient domain with low dissiaption to noisy environment NESS at room temperature.
Nonequilibrium energy flows in a driven quantum system coupled to two heat baths are investigated to describe microscopic driven-dissipative processes, based on both a canonical transformation and full counting statistics. The main focus is to understand the interference between the coherent driving and bath induced dissipation. We aim to explore efficient modulation of the quantum energy transport, characterized as transient energy flow, by the Rabi driving and the temperature bias. In particular, steady-state energy flow is divided into three components: temperature bias flow, driving flow, and coherence flow. The driving flow is dominated by the external field driving, and the coherence flow is determined by the interference of two side peaks that are blueshifted and redshifted in Mollow's triplet. The energy flow is mainly contributed by the temperature bias flow at a weak driving limit, and the driving flow is in a strong driving regime. The effects of driving amplitude and temperature bias on the steady-state flow are discussed comprehensively. The results may provide guidance for the efficient control of energy and the information transport in nanodevices driven by an optical field.
We study coherent energy transfer of a single excitation and quantum entanglement in a dimer, which consists of a donor and an acceptor modeled by two two-level systems. Between the donor and the acceptor, there exists a dipole-dipole interaction, which provides the physical mechanism for coherent energy transfer and entanglement generation. The donor and the acceptor couple to two independent heat baths with diagonal couplings that do not dissipate the energy of the noncoupling dimer. Special attention is paid to the effect on single-excitation energy transfer and entanglement generation of the energy detuning between the donor and the acceptor and the temperatures of the two heat baths. It is found that, the probability for single-excitation energy transfer largely depends on the energy detuning in the low temperature limit. Concretely, the positive and negative energy detunings can increase and decrease the probability at steady state, respectively. In the high temperature limit, however, the effect of the energy detuning on the probability is negligibly small. We also find that the probability is negligibly dependent on the bath temperature difference of the two heat baths. In addition, it is found that quantum entanglement can be generated in the process of coherent energy transfer. As the bath temperature increases, the generated steady-state entanglement decreases. For a given bath temperature, the steady-state entanglement decreases with the increase of the absolute value of the energy detuning.
Abstract Whether genuine quantum effects, particularly quantum coherences, can offer an advantage to quantum devices is a topic of much interest. Here, we study a minimal model, the three-level V system coupled to two heat baths, and investigate the role of quantum coherences in heat transport in both the transient regime and in the nonequilibrium steady-state. In our model, energy is exchanged between the baths through two parallel pathways, which can be made distinct through the nondegeneracy of excited levels (energy splitting Δ) and a control parameter α , which adjusts the strength of one of the arms. Using a nonsecular quantum master equation of Redfield form, we succeed in deriving closed-form expressions for the quantum coherences and the heat current in the steady state limit for closely degenerate excited levels. By including three ingredients in our analysis: nonequilibrium baths, nondegeneracy of levels, and asymmetry of pathways, we show that quantum coherences are generated and sustained in the V model in the steady-state limit if three conditions, conjoining thermal and coherent effects are simultaneously met: (i) the two baths are held at different temperatures. (ii) Bath-induced pathways do not interfere destructively. (iii) Thermal rates do not mingle with the control parameter α to destroy interference through an effective local equilibrium condition. Particularly, we find that coherences are maximized when the heat current is suppressed. Although we mainly focus on analytical results in the steady state limit, numerical simulations reveal that the transient behavior of coherences contrasts the steady-state limit: large long-lived transient coherences vanish at steady state, while weak short-lived transient coherences survive, suggesting that different mechanisms are at play in these two regimes. Enhancing either the lifetime of transient coherences or their magnitude at steady state thus requires the control and optimization of different physical parameters.
The occurrence of coherence phenomenon as a result of the interference of the probability amplitude terms is among the principle features of quantum mechanics concepts. Current experiments display the presence of quantum techniques whose coherence is supplied over large interval times. Specifically, photosynthetic mechanisms in light-harvesting complexes furnish oscillatory behaviors owing to quantum coherence. In this manuscript, we study the coherent quantum energy transfer for a single-excitation and nonlocal correlation in a dimer system (donor+acceptor) displayed by two-level systems (TLSs), interacting with a cavity field with a time-dependent coupling effect considering the realistic situation of coupling between each TLS and the cavity field. We analyze and explore the specific conditions which are viable with real experimental realization for the ultimate transfer of quantum energy and nonlocal quantum correlation. We show that the enhancement of the probability for a single-excitation energy transfer greatly benefits from the energy detuning, photon-number transition, classicality of the field, and the time-dependent coupling effect. We also find that the entanglement between the donor and acceptor is very sensitive to the physical parameters and it can be generated during the coherent energy transfer.
Abstract Coherent control uses interference between quantum pathways to enhance or suppress transitions to a target quantum state. In stimulated Raman excitation, such control can be achieved through interference between two indistinguishable pathways connecting the same initial and final states, with the relative phase between the pathways modulating the population transfer to the final state. Extending this strategy to the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and X-ray regimes would enable control of ultrafast electronic dynamics and site-selective core excitations. However, Raman coupling at short wavelengths competes with photoionization and intermediate-state decay, whereas intense fields with stable and adjustable relative phases remain difficult to produce. Here we use two-colour pulses from a seeded coherent free-electron laser to excite helium from its ground state to a bound metastable state via stimulated XUV Raman excitation. We implement phase-coherent control by creating two interfering Raman pathways through the ionization continuum and modulate the transferred population by varying their relative phases. Blocking one pathway removes the modulation, confirming its interferometric origin, and time-dependent Schrödinger equation calculations reproduce the measured phase dependence. Our results establish phase-controlled stimulated Raman excitation in the XUV regime, providing a strategy for the coherent control of atomic and molecular processes at short wavelengths.