Pair and mediated RET between two chiral molecules

Abstract

The influence of one or two identical, inert, bridging molecules in relaying electronic excitation energy resonantly between a chiral donor and a chiral acceptor is studied within the framework of molecular quantum electrodynamics (QED) theory. Electric and magnetic dipole coupling terms describe each chiral entity, while the mediators are each electric dipole polarisable. A single virtual photon propagates between each interacting pair. Fermi golden rule transition rates are calculated for isotropic systems. Both direct and mediated transfer between donor and acceptor is discriminatory, depending on their handedness. The mediator particles facilitate energy migration by scattering virtual photons, responding via their ground state polarisability at the resonant frequency of the donor de-excitation energy. Indirect transfer is a maximum for a collinear arrangement of the three or four bodies. Interestingly, mediated transfer vanishes when the relaying particles are approximated as two-level systems. Further understanding is gained of microscopic discriminatory energy transfer in a dielectric medium.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Molecular QED
• resonance energy transfer
• chirality
• discriminatory effects
• dielectric medium

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).