Non-Monotonic Exciton Transport Efficiency in Multi-layer Ring-shaped Quantum Networks inspired by Photosystem I

Abstract:Photosystem I (PSI) is one of the most efficient natural photosynthetic complexes and serves as a structural prototype for understanding excitation energy transfer (EET) and designing artificial light-harvesting systems. Here, we construct a multilayer elliptical-conical quantum network inspired by PSI to investigate how antenna architecture affects EET. Excitation dynamics are simulated using the quantum jump approach combined with coherent modified Redfield theory (QJA-CMRT). The transfer efficiency exhibits a pronounced nonmonotonic dependence on pigment density, reaching a maximum of 0.86 at x=6 in the five-layer network. The optimal configuration contains 91 pigments, close to the number of core antenna pigments in natural PSI. Our combined density-of-states and kinetic analyses reveal that this nonmonotonic dependence originates from a trade-off: at low pigment densities, enhanced band overlap promotes energy transfer, whereas at high densities, excessive exciton delocalization compromises funnel directionality and reduces efficiency; the optimal configuration is consequently achieved at x=6. These findings provide insights into PSI antenna organization and offer guidelines for designing efficient artificial light-harvesting systems.

Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft); Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

arXiv:2610.13949 [cond-mat.soft]

(or arXiv:2610.13949v1 [cond-mat.soft] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.13949 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

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