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Science 16 January 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5912, pp. 369 - 373
DOI: 10.1126/science.1164016
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Reports

Coherent Intrachain Energy Migration in a Conjugated Polymer at Room Temperature

Elisabetta Collini and Gregory D. Scholes*

The intermediate coupling regime for electronic energy transfer is of particular interest because excitation moves in space, as in a classical hopping mechanism, but quantum phase information is conserved. We conducted an ultrafast polarization experiment specifically designed to observe quantum coherent dynamics in this regime. Conjugated polymer samples with different chain conformations were examined as model multichromophoric systems. The data, recorded at room temperature, reveal coherent intrachain (but not interchain) electronic energy transfer. Our results suggest that quantum transport effects occur at room temperature when chemical donor-acceptor bonds help to correlate dephasing perturbations.

Department of Chemistry, Institute for Optical Sciences, and Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Control, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gscholes{at}chem.utoronto.ca

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
From the Cover: Theoretical examination of quantum coherence in a photosynthetic system at physiological temperature.
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