Model exact many-body studies of charge transfer through bridged systems

Abstract

A new dynamical method is employed to study charge transfer probabilities between a donor and an acceptor coupled via a long π-conjugated bridge, within a correlated many-body picture. The initial state of the composite system (donor + bridge + acceptor) is taken to be the direct product of the ground state of the bridge Hamiltonian with specified occupancies in the donor and the acceptor orbitals. This t=0 state is evolved using the many-body model Hamiltonian of the composite system. We find that for the interacting model, the rate of electron transfer depends strongly on the initial occupancy of the acceptor orbital. The electron transfer rate is quite different from the spin exchange rate and emphasizes the spin-charge separation in one-dimensional Hubbard models.