arXiv subjects

Amitav Sahu

Publications and source records attributed to Amitav Sahu.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Franson-Interferometric Bounds on Entangled Two-Photon Absorption

Entangled photons offer quantum correlations with no classical analogue. In entangled pair two-photon absorption (ETPA), absorption rate is predicted to scale linearly rather than quadratically with photon flux, promising molecular excitation at fluxes far below the classical threshold. Reported ETPA cross sections nevertheless vary widely across experiments, largely since the observable, the differential of the transmitted flux or weak fluorescence, is difficult to separate from scattering and linear losses. We present a method which uses Franson interference to study entangled two-photon absorption through delay-dependent coincidence measurements on dye molecules. Applying the method to Rhodamine 6G, we observe a small asymmetry in the Franson interference envelope and obtain a model-derived effective cross section of approximately 2.1 E(-21) centimeter squared for Rhodamine 6G. However, the estimated systematic uncertainty does not allow a definitive ETPA assignment. Instead, the experiment establishes a quantitative bound on the ETPA response and provides a background-free benchmark for future measurements.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2026

Disorder-Induced Localization of Molecular Polaritons Despite Spectroscopic Strong Coupling

Molecular polaritons are hybrid light--matter quasiparticles whose collective character is often associated with molecular excitations extending over many emitters. However, molecular ensembles are intrinsically disordered and dissipative, and spectrally visible polariton peaks do not necessarily imply delocalized molecular character. Here, we theoretically examine how static energetic disorder and finite cavity and molecular linewidths affect the delocalization of electronic polaritons in cavity--coupled molecular ensembles. Using a disordered Tavis--Cummings model, we show that energetic disorder mixes polariton states with the dark-state manifold, causing a rapid loss of collective molecular character even when polaritonic spectral features remain visible. We quantify this crossover using the molecular participation ratio, a density--matrix--based coherence measure, and an energy--resolved autocorrelation function. In the lossless electronic model, preserving an extended polaritonic molecular component requires the collective Rabi splitting to exceed the disorder width by more than a factor of five, providing a stricter condition than conventional spectroscopic strong coupling. Extending the analysis to a non--Hermitian Hamiltonian shows that cavity--molecule linewidth imbalance further reduces disorder tolerance. The resulting delocalization boundary indicates that preserving an extended molecular polariton component requires a collective Rabi splitting larger than roughly eight times the disorder width plus approximately twice the cavity--molecule linewidth mismatch. These results provide a quantitative criterion for polariton delocalization under disorder and loss and show that disorder, dissipation, and collective coupling must be considered together when assessing whether molecular polaritons remain collectively extended in realistic optical cavities.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2026

Helicity-Resolved Spatiotemporal Mapping of Chiral Plexcitons in Helicoids

Plasmon-exciton hybrids, or plexcitons, offer deeply subwavelength light-matter interactions with versatile pathways for energy redistribution. Incorporating chirality into such systems is particularly compelling, enabling spin-sensitive optical functionality that can operate on ultrafast timescales and within ultracompact volumes. Despite recent progress in chiral plexcitonic systems, how structural chirality and plasmon-exciton coupling determine chiroptical spectra and ultrafast energy flow remains elusive. Here we realize chiral plexcitons by functionalizing intrinsically chiral gold helicoid nanoparticles with molecular J-aggregates. Within a non-Hermitian framework, we trace the microscopic origin of the helicoid chiroptical response and its coupling to the excitonic transition, revealing how the helicity of light selectively addresses distinct hybrid responses. At the spatiotemporal extreme, we find that the gap-localized response not only enhances polarization-sensitive contrast but also strengthens the local hybrid interaction, leading to accelerated ultrafast relaxation. Together, these space-, time-, and polarization-resolved measurements provide a physically grounded and experimentally benchmarked picture of chiral plexcitonic coupling, identifying chirality as a practical control parameter for selectively steering nanoscale energy pathways and dynamics.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

Prominent Signatures of Energy Transfer in Action-Detected Spectra of a Cyanobacterial Photosynthetic Protein

Action-detected two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (A-2DES) could potentially be a versatile chemical tool with applicability across a range of photophysical observables such as photocurrent, photoionization, or fluorescence. However, a prominent absence of excited state energy/charge transfer dynamics signals in archetypal photosynthetic proteins has suggested severe limitations of A-2DES in probing large aggregates where sensitivity to excited state dynamics is proposed to go down as 1/N, where N is the aggregate size. We report measurements of energy transfer dynamics in a cyanobacterial protein through both conventional and fluorescence 2DES (F-2DES), where the dynamics reported by F-2DES is quite prominent and comparable to that measured by conventional 2DES. Analysis of our experiments combined with coarse-grained simulations of the spectra suggest that the 1/N limit argument, which assumes infinitely fast intra-exciton manifold equilibration, is modified in case of cyanobacterial proteins because of slow annihilation. Our results suggest that action detection may in fact be well-suited to probe exciton diffusion across weakly coupled systems.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2023

Low and High Frequency Vibrations Synergistically Enhance Singlet Exciton Fission Through Robust Vibronic Resonances

Singlet exciton fission (SEF) is initiated by ultrafast internal conversion of a singlet exciton into a correlated triplet pair (TT)1. The `reaction coordinates' for ultrafast SEF even in archetypal systems such as pentacene thin film remain unclear with synthetic design principles broadly relying on tailoring electronic couplings to achieve new templates for efficient SEF materials. Spectroscopic detection of vibrational coherences in the (TT)1 photoproduct has motivated theoretical investigations into a possible role of vibronic resonance in driving SEF, akin to that reported in several photosynthetic proteins. However, a precise understanding of how prominent low-frequency vibrations and their modulation of intermolecular orbital overlaps, equally prominent high-frequency vibrations, and order of magnitude larger Huang-Rhys factors in SEF chromophores compared to photosynthetic pigments, collectively influence the mechanistic details of SEF remains starkly lacking. Here we address this gap and identify previously unrecognized effects which are quite contrasting from those known in photosynthesis excitons, and vitally enhance non-adiabatic internal conversion in SEF. Our findings have direct implications for the broad experimental interest in synthetically tailoring molecules to promote vibronically enhanced internal conversion.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2023

Coherence Transfer and Destructive Interference in Two-Dimensional Coherence Maps

Coherence maps (CMs) in multidimensional spectroscopy report total interference of all quantum coherent pathways. Detailed understanding of how this interference manifests spectroscopically is vital for deciphering mechanistic origins of impulsively generated wavepackets, but currently lacking. Here we explain the origin of recently reported diagonal node-like features in CMs of bacteriochlorophyll monomers and photosynthetic reaction centers (RCs), where the apparent resemblance in the two disparate systems was reportedly perplexing. We show that both spectroscopic signatures have distinct physical origins. Node-like lineshapes in monomers arise from unique phase twists caused by destructive interference between ground and excited state vibrational coherences. In contrast, nodal lines in RCs are explained by coherence transfer of vibrational wavepackets which do not participate in the ultrafast energy transfer and their destructive interference with ground state pathways. Our results resolve recent spectroscopic observations and illustrate new mechanistic insights gained from understanding interference effects in multidimensional spectroscopy.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2022

High-sensitivity Fluorescence-Detected Multidimensional Electronic Spectroscopy Through Continuous Pump-probe Delay Scan

Background-free fluorescence detection in multidimensional electronic spectroscopy promises high sensitivity compared to conventional approaches. Here we explore the sensitivity limits of multidimensional electronic spectroscopy. We present a fluorescence-detected multidimensional electronic spectrometer based on a visible white-light continuum. As a demonstration of sensitivity, we report room temperature two-dimensional coherence maps of vibrational quantum coherences in a laser dye at optical densities ~2-3 orders of magnitude lower than conventional approaches. This high sensitivity is enabled by a combination of biased sampling along the optical coherence time axes and a rapid scan of the waiting time T dimension at each time step. A combination of acousto-optic phase modulation and phase-sensitive lock-in detection enables simultaneous collection of rephasing and non-rephasing signals and measurements of room temperature vibrational wavepackets even at the lowest ODs. Alternative faster data collection schemes, enabled by the flexibility of continuous pump-probe scanning approach, are also demonstrated.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2020

Trap Mediated Energy Transport via Vibronic Resonance

Controlling energy transfer through vibronic resonance is an interesting possibility. Exact treatment of non-adiabatic vibronic coupling is necessary to fully capture its role in driving energy transfer. However, exact treatment of vibrations in extended systems is expensive, sometimes requiring oversimplifying approximations to reduce vibrational dimensionality, and do not provide physical insights into which specific vibrational motions promote energy transport. Here we derive effective normal modes for excitonically coupled aggregates which reduce the overall high-dimensional vibronic Hamiltonian into independent one-dimensional Hamiltonians. Applying this approach on a trimer toy model, we demonstrate trap-mediated energy transport between electronically uncoupled sites. Bringing uncoupled sites into vibronic resonance converts the `trap' into a `conduit' for population transfer, while simultaneously minimizing trapped excitations. Visualizing energy transfer along the aggregate normal modes provides non-intuitive insights into which specific vibrational motions allow for trap-mediated energy transport by promoting vibronic mixing.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2020

Resonant Vibrational-Electronic Coupling between Photosynthetic Excitons is Inadequately Described by Reduced Basis Sets

Vibrational-electronic (vibronic) resonance and its role in energy and charge transfer has been experimentally and theoretically investigated in several photosynthetic proteins. Using a dimer modeled on a typical photosynthetic protein, we contrast the description of such excitons provided by an exact basis set description, as opposed to a basis set with reduced vibrational dimensionality. Using a reduced analytical description of the full Hamiltonian, we show that in the presence of vibrational excitation both on electronically excited as well as unexcited sites, constructive interference between such basis states causes vibronic coupling between excitons to become progressively stronger with increasing quanta of vibrational excitation. This effect leads to three distinguishing features of excitons coupled through a vibronic resonance which are not captured in basis sets with reduced vibrational dimensionality - 1. the vibronic resonance criterion itself, 2. vibronically assisted perfect delocalization between sites even though purely electronic mixing between the sites is imperfect due to energetic disorder, 3. the nuclear distortion accompanying vibronic excitons becoming increasingly larger for resonant vibronic coupling involving higher vibrational quanta. In terms of spectroscopically observable limitations of reduced basis set descriptions of vibronic resonance, several differences are seen in absorption and emission spectra, but may be obscured on account of overwhelming line broadening. However, we show that several features such as vibronic exciton delocalization and vibrational distortions associated with electronic excitations, which ultimately dictate the excited state wavepacket motions and relaxation processes, are fundamentally not described under reduced basis set descriptions of vibronic resonance.

physics.chem-ph↗