Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-06-18

Quantum-coherent drive of energy transfer along helical structures by polarized light

Objective

Electronic energy transfer (EET) is a ubiquitous photophysical process that plays a crucial role in the light-harvesting capabilities of natural antenna complexes. Emerging experimental breakthroughs indicate that the dynamics of light harvesting is not fully described by a classical random-walk picture, but also quantum coherent transfer takes place. Interestingly, coherent EET processes were recently detected also in a conjugated polymer at room temperature, suggesting that coherent EET may play a key role in artificial systems, as well. This suggests a new way to think about the design of future artificial photosynthetic systems and can potentially open a revolutionary avenue for the effective use of biological systems and conjugated polymers as quantum devices or resources for quantum information processing. The main goal of the project is to give an important contribution in this breakthrough field, looking for a piece of information still missing: the possible presence of a relation between structure and coherent mechanisms. The main challenge is to develop new spectroscopic tools able to unveil the presence and the nature of vibrational modes acting during the energy migration and possibly driving coherent mechanisms. To this aim, a new 2D technique is proposed, which merges together the sensitivity of circular dichroism to structural deformations and the power of 2D photon echo in detecting coherent effects. Instead of natural light-harvesting antennae, the objects of this project will be model systems, more stable and easier to manipulate and modify ad hoc. The attention will be mainly focused on multichromophoric systems with helical arrangements because they mimic a ubiquitous motif that nature exploited to develop highly efficient EET. The helical core can act indeed as a wire, directionally driving the energy migration and, perhaps, preserving long-lived coherences.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2011-StG_20101014
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Host institution

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA
EU contribution
€ 1 479 480,00
Address
VIA 8 FEBBRAIO 2
35122 PADOVA
Italy

See on map

Region
Nord-Est Veneto Padova
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Beneficiaries (1)

My booklet 0 0