A stochastic reorganizational bath model for electronic energy transfer

Abstract

The fluctuations of optical gap induced by the environment play crucial roles in electronic energy transfer dynamics. One of the simplest approaches to incorporate such fluctuations in energy transfer dynamics is the well known Haken-Strobl-Reineker model, in which the energy-gap fluctuation is approximated as a white noise. Recently, several groups have employed molecular dynamics simulations and excited-state calculations in conjunction to take the thermal fluctuation of excitation energies into account. Here, we discuss a rigorous connection between the stochastic and the atomistic bath models. If the phonon bath is treated classically, time evolution of the exciton-phonon system can be described by Ehrenfest dynamics. To establish the relationship between the stochastic and atomistic bath models, we employ a projection operator technique to derive the generalized Langevin equations for the energy-gap fluctuations. The stochastic bath model can be obtained as an approximation of the atomistic Ehrenfest equations via the generalized Langevin approach. Based on the connection, we propose a novel scheme to correct reorganization effects within the framework of stochastic models. The proposed scheme provides a better description of the population dynamics especially in the regime of strong exciton-phonon coupling. Finally, we discuss the effect of the bath reorganization in the absorption and fluorescence spectra of ideal J-aggregates in terms of the Stokes shifts. For this purpose, we introduce a simple relationship that relates the reorganization contribution to the Stokes shifts - the reorganization shift - to three parameters: the monomer reorganization energy, the relaxation time of the optical gap, and the exciton delocalization length. This simple relationship allows one to classify the origin of the Stokes shifts in molecular aggregates.