Understanding the nature of mean-field semiclassical light-matter dynamics: An investigation of energy transfer, electron-electron correlations, external driving, and long-time detailed balance

Tao E. Li, Hsing Ta Chen, Abraham Nitzan, Joseph E. Subotnik*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Semiclassical electrodynamics (with quantum matter plus classical electrodynamics fields) is an appealing approach for studying light-matter interactions, especially for realistic molecular systems. However, there is no unique semiclassical scheme. On the one hand, intermolecular interactions can be described instantaneously by static two-body interactions connecting two different molecules, while a classical transverse E field acts as a spectator at short distance; we will call this Hamiltonian no. I. On the other hand, intermolecular interactions can also be described as effects that are mediated exclusively through a classical one-body E field without any quantum effects at all (assuming we ignore electronic exchange); we will call this Hamiltonian no. II. Moreover, one can also mix these two different Hamiltonians into a third, hybrid Hamiltonian, which preserves quantum electron-electron correlations for lower excitations but describes higher excitations in a mean-field way. To investigate which semiclassical scheme is most reliable for practical use, here we study the real-time dynamics of a minimalistic many-site model- A pair of identical two-level systems (TLSs)-undergoing either resonance energy transfer (RET) or collectively driven dynamics. While both approaches (no. 1 and no. 2) perform reasonably well when there is no strong external excitation, we find that no single approach is perfect for all conditions (and all methods fail when a strong external field is applied). Each method has its own distinct problems: Hamiltonian no. I performs best for RET but behaves in a complicated manner for driven dynamics; Hamiltonian no. II is always stable, but obviously fails for RET at short distances. One key finding is that, for externally driven dynamics, a full configuration-interaction description of Hamiltonian no. I strongly overestimates the long-time electronic energy, highlighting the not obvious fact that, if one plans to merge quantum molecules with classical light, a full, exact treatment of electron-electron correlations can actually lead to worse results than a simple mean-field electronic structure treatment. Future work will need to investigate (i) how these algorithms behave in the context of more than a pair of TLSs and (ii) whether or not these algorithms can be improved in general by including crucial aspects of spontaneous emission.

Original languageEnglish
Article number062509
JournalPhysical Review A
Volume100
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 13 Dec 2019
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
Office of Basic Energy Sciences
US Department of Energy
US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated
Office of Science
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation

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