Exciton-polariton soliton wavetrains in molecular crystals with dispersive long-range intermolecular interactions

Abstract: The peculiar crystal structure of one-dimensional molecular solids originates from packing of an array of molecules in which intermolecular interactions are dominantly dispersive, including hydrogen-bond, van der Waals and London-type forces. These forces are usually relatively weaker than covalent and ionic bondings such that long-range intermolecular interactions should play important role in dispersion properties of molecular crystals such as polymers and biomolecular chain structures. In this work the effects of long but finite-range intermolecular interactions on single-exciton dispersion energy, and hence on characteristic parameters of periodic soliton trains associated with bound exciton-polariton states in one-dimensional molecular crystals interacting with an electromagnetic field, are investigated. Long-range interactions are shown to quantitatively modify the exciton-polariton soliton amplitudes, width and velocity as a result of shrinkage of the single-exciton energy spectrum. The soliton structures of interest are nonlinear wavetrains, consisting of periodically ordered single-pulse (i.e. bright) or single-kink (i.e. dark) solitons with equal separation between the constituent single-soliton modes. Periodic soliton structures are relevant and best suited for finite-size chain systems, where periodic boundary conditions rule the generation of nonlinear wave profiles. Generally they are of weaker nonlinearity compared to their single-soliton constituents as well established within the framework of their generation via the process of modulational instability