Directed polaron propagation in linear polypeptides induced by intramolecular vibrations and external electric pulses

Abstract

We study the propagation of $\alpha$-helix polarons in a model describing the non-adiabatic interaction between an electron and a lattice of quantum mechanical oscillators at physiological temperature. We show that when excited by a sub-picosecond electric pulse, as induced by experimentally observed sub-picosecond charge separation, the polaron is displaced by up to hundreds of lattice sites before the electron becomes delocalised. We discuss biophysical implications of our results.