Unified treatment of coherent and incoherent electronic energy transfer dynamics using classical electrodynamics

Journal Article · Thu Oct 14 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Journal of Chemical Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3488136· OSTI ID:21559926

Zimanyi, Eric N; Silbey, Robert J ^[1]

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1. Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)

Recent experiments on resonance energy transfer (RET) in photosynthetic systems have found evidence of quantum coherence between the donor and the acceptor. Under these conditions, Foerster's theory of RET is no longer applicable and no theory of coherent RET advanced to date rivals the intuitive simplicity of Foerster's theory. Here, we develop a framework for understanding RET that is based on classical electrodynamics but still captures the essence of the quantum coherence between the molecules. Our theory requires only a knowledge of the complex polarizabilities of the two molecules participating in the transfer as well as the distance between them. We compare our results to quantum mechanical calculations and show that the results agree quantitatively.

• OSTI ID: 21559926
• Journal Information: Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 133, Issue 14; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3488136; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-9606
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPLEXES
ELECTRODYNAMICS
ENERGY TRANSFER
MOLECULES
PHOTON-MOLECULE COLLISIONS
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
POLARIZABILITY
QUANTUM MECHANICS
REACTION KINETICS
RESONANCE
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COLLISIONS
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
EVALUATION
KINETICS
MECHANICS
MOLECULE COLLISIONS
PHOTOCHEMICAL REACTIONS
PHOTON COLLISIONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SYNTHESIS