Enhancing energy transport utilising permanent molecular dipoles

Abstract

We study exciton energy transfer along a molecular chain while accounting for the effects of permanent dipoles induced by charge displacements in the molecular orbitals. These effects are typically neglected as they do not arise in conventional atomic quantum optics; however, they can play an important role in molecular systems. We further demonstrate how permanent dipoles can preferentially arrange energy eigenstates to support excitation transport, such as by creating energetic barriers and adding structure to the eigenspectrum. Putting all this together, we show how permanent dipoles can enhance the ability of the molecular chain to support excitation transport across a range of environmental and system configurations.