Abstract

The investigation of real-time dynamics of charged and neutral quantum excitation propagating through macromolecular systems is receiving growing attention due to its potentially countless applications in nano-scale (opto-)electronics and in biophysics. Several key issues have not been fully clarified yet, including the role played by molecular thermal fluctuations and the possible correlations between the degree of quantum coherence and the efficiency of the transport process. In order to gain some insight, we developed a rigorous and systematic framework describing quantum transport, based on a field-theoretic formalism.