Engineering quantum-enhanced transport by supertransfer

Chikako Uchiyama

Andrea Alberti, V. V. Ivanov, Guglielmo Maria Tino +1 more

David K. Ferry

Adesh Kushwaha, Ivan Kassal

Collective behaviour of the components of a quantum system can significantly alter the rates of dynamical processes within the system. A paradigmatic collective effect is superradiance, the enhancement in the rate that radiation is emitted by a group of emitters relative to that emitted by independent emitters. Less studied are collective effects in energy transport, notably supertransfer, the enhancement of the rate of energy transfer from donors to acceptors due to delocalised excitations. Despite its generality as a collective enhancement mechanism in transport, there has been no direct experimental detection of supertransfer because, in most physical platforms where delocalisation arises naturally, delocalisation cannot be turned on and off to evaluate its effect on energy transfer. Here, we show that supertransfer could be directly observed using a quantum device based on a superconducting circuit. The programmability and control offered by an engineered device would allow controllable delocalisation of quantum states, giving full tunability over supertransfer. Our guidelines for engineering supertransfer could inform the design of future quantum-enhanced devices.

Francesco Mattiotti, Mohan Sarovar, Giulio G. Giusteri +2 more

Abstract Efficient devices for light harvesting and photon sensing are fundamental building blocks of basic energy science and many essential technologies. Recent efforts have turned to biomimicry to design the next generation of light-capturing devices, partially fueled by an appreciation of the fantastic efficiency of the initial stages of natural photosynthetic systems at capturing photons. In such systems extended excitonic states are thought to play a fundamental functional role, inducing cooperative coherent effects, such as superabsorption of light and supertransfer of photoexcitations. Inspired by this observation, we design an artificial light-harvesting and photodetection device that maximally harnesses cooperative effects to enhance efficiency. The design relies on separating absorption and transfer processes (energetically and spatially) in order to overcome the fundamental obstacle to exploiting cooperative effects to enhance light capture: the enhanced emission processes that accompany superabsorption. This engineered separation of processes greatly improves the efficiency and the scalability of the system.

David K. Ferry, Mihail Nedjalkov