Impact of the unrelaxed vibrational modes on hot-electron transfer

Abstract

The ultrafast photoinduced electron or exciton transfer was investigated theoretically. The charge separation on the ultrafast time scale results in the unrelaxed vibrational modes that appear in the initial terms of the generalized master equations. Here, the impact of these initial terms on the electron transfer directionality in the open system was evaluated. Moreover, the role of unrelaxed vibrational modes in electron–hole separation was also examined. It was shown that the unrelaxed vibrational modes significantly increase the efficiency of electron–hole separation. This could play a crucial role in the remarkable efficiency of charge separation in biological systems.