Quantum dynamics in condensed phases : charge carrier mobility, decoherence, and excitation energy transfer

In this thesis, we develop analytical models for quantum systems and perform theoretical investigations on several dynamical processes in condensed phases. First, we study charge-carrier mobilities in organic molecular crystals, and develop a microscopic theory that describes both the coherent band-like and incoherent hopping transport observed in organic crystals. We investigate the structures of polaron states using a variational scheme, and calculate both band-like and hopping mobilities at a broad range of parameters. Our mobility calculations in 1-D nearest-neighbor systems predict universal band-like to hopping transitions, in agreement with experiments. Second, motivated by recent developments in quantum computing with solid-state systems, we propose an effective Hamiltonian approach to describe quantum dissipation and decoherence. We then applied this method to study the effect of noise in a number of quantum algorithms and calculate noise threshold for fault-tolerant quantum error corrections (QEC). In addition, we perform a systematic investigation on several variables that can affect the efficiency of the fault-tolerant QEC scheme, aiming to generate a generic picture on how to search for optimal circuit design for real physical implementations.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemistry.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Cheng, Yuan-Chung, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Robert J. Silbey.

• Chemistry.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34496

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34496