Two-site realization of the Davydov model in a finite size lattice: A time-convolutionless master equation approach

Abstract

A two-site realization of the Davydov model is introduced to study the energy flow between two amide-I modes embedded in a finite size lattice of hydrogen-bounded peptide units. The non-Markovian nature of the energy transfer is addressed by using a time convolutionless master equation for the population difference of quanta between the two sites of the dimer. It is shown that both the lattice size and the dimer position discriminate between two dynamical regimes. For specific values of these parameters, the population difference shows damped oscillations. It decreases exponentially and rapidly vanishes, which indicates that the equilibrium corresponds to a uniform energy distribution over the two sites of the dimer. By contrast, for other specific values of the lattice size and dimer position, a slowdown of the decoherence takes place. The population difference does not decay exponentially but evolves by steps during which the damping of the oscillations is very small. In addition, the occurrence of revivals characterizing an amplification of the coherence over a finite time scale is observed. Nevertheless, both the decoherence slowdown and the revivals are limited by pure dephasing so that the population difference finally vanishes, but after a rather large coherent time.