Aus theoretischer und empirischer Sicht ist zu diskutieren, ob die Genossenschaften positive Auswirkungen für ihre Mitglieder haben. Das Forschungsziel dieser Dissertation ist die Erklärung und Bewertung der Auswirkungen, die landwirtschaftliche Genossenschaften auf ihre Mitglieder in diesen Kontexten haben. Die Leitfragen lauten: (1) welches sind die sozioökonomischen Merkmale der Landwirte, die Mitglieder von Genossenschaften sind? und (2) welche spezifischen Auswirkungen haben landwirtschaftliche Genossenschaften auf ihre Mitglieder? Die Fragen werden in einer systematischen Literaturarbeit und drei empirischen Artikeln behandelt. Die systematische Literaturrecherche zeigt die empirischen Belege für positive Effekte von Genossenschaften finden sich in den Kategorien Zugang zu und Nutzung von landwirtschaftlichen Betriebsmitteln, Einkommen, Preise sowie Status und Entscheidungsmacht von Frauen. Im zweiten und dritten Artikel werden die Eigenschaften der Mitglieder und Preiswirkungen von Genossenschaften im argentinischen Wein- und Milchsektor untersucht. Landwirte, die an Genossenschaften verkaufen, erhalten in den untersuchten Fällen niedrigere Preise für ihre Produkte als Landwirte, die an anlegerorientierte Unternehmen verkaufen. Das vierte Papier analysiert Mechanismen, die zur Inklusion benachteiligter Haushalte in sambischen Maisgenossenschaften beitragen. Inklusion entwickelt sich in Genossenschaften, die Engagement zeigen und entweder vulnerable Mitglieder mit Finanzdienstleistungen versorgen, soziale Identität fördern oder benachteiligte Mitglieder dafür entschädigen, dass sie keinen Zugang zu subventionierten Betriebsmitteln haben. Die Gesamtergebnisse zeigen, dass Genossenschaften im Allgemeinen mit den am stärksten benachteiligten Landwirten zusammenarbeiten. Sie erzielen verschiedene positive Wirkungen für ihre Mitglieder. Dennoch gibt es auch einen relevanten Anteil von Fällen, in denen es nicht genügend empirische Belege für ihre Auswirkungen gibt. / From both theoretical and empirical perspectives, whether cooperatives provide their members with benefits remains open to debate. The research objective of this thesis is to explain and assess the effects agricultural cooperatives have on their members in developing contexts. The guiding questions are: (1) what are the socio-economic characteristics of farmers who participate in cooperatives? and (2) what are the specific effects of agricultural cooperatives on their farmer members? The questions are addressed in a systematic literature review and three empirical papers. The systematic literature review finds that what is known about cooperatives is based upon a very limited set of cases. The most conclusive evidence of positive effects corresponds to the categories access to and use of inputs, income, prices and women’s status and agency. The Paper Two and Three explore member characteristics and price effects of cooperatives and Investor-Oriented Firms in the Argentinean non-varietal wine and dairy sector, respectively. Farmers selling to cooperatives receive lower prices than farmers selling to Investor-Oriented Firms in the studied cases. Since cooperative members differ from other farmers in terms of size, assets and the cost of accessing the market, it can be concluded that cooperatives deal with more disadvantaged farmers at the expense of lower prices. The Paper Four analyses the mechanisms that contribute towards inclusion of disadvantaged households in Zambian maize cooperatives. Inclusion develops in cooperatives that show commitment and either provide financial services to vulnerable members, promote social identities or compensate disadvantaged members for not being able to access subsidised inputs. The overall results show that cooperatives generally work with the most disadvantaged farmers. They create multiple positive effects for their members. However, there is also a meaningful share of cases with a lack of sufficient evidence of effects.

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Questa tesi di dottorato studia l’interazione della cooperatività con il rumore in sistemi realistici, focalizzandosi principalmente sulla superradianza. Gli effetti cooperativi emergono dall’interazione collettiva di un insieme di elementi con un campo esterno. Esempi degni di nota sono la superconduttività, dove le coppie di Cooper elettroniche interagiscono con le vibrazioni reticolari, le eccitazioni di plasma, che sorgono dall'interazione collettiva degli elettroni in un metallo con il campo coulombiano, e la superradianza, ovvero quel processo di emissione spontanea cooperativa che sorge da un aggregato di emettitori identici. Gli effetti cooperativi sono tipicamente robusti al disordine e al rumore, cosa che li rende interessanti per delle applicazioni a dispositivi quantistici che possano operare a temperatura ambiente. In questo lavoro, inizialmente, introduciamo un formalismo di “master equations” che descrive l’accoppiamento collettivo di un aggregato di emettitori/assorbitori con il campo elettromagnetico, valido quando le dimensioni dell'aggregato sono sia maggiori che minori della lunghezza d’onda emessa/assorbita. Inoltre, il formalismo è valido per accoppiamento sia debole che forte con il campo elettromagnetico e, cosa più importante, permette di descrivere correttamente la superradianza in diversi regimi. In tale formalismo, studiamo l’interazione tra superradianza e rumore termico sia per nanotubi molecolari (di dimensioni minori della lunghezza d’onda associata alla transizione) che sono presenti nei complessi antenna fotosintetici dei Green Sulfur Bacteria, sia pure per superreticoli di quantum dots di nuova generazione, aventi dimensioni maggiori della lunghezza d’onda emessa. In entrambi i casi si dimostra che la coerenza può permanere in presenza di rumore termico alle temperature a cui questi sistemi sono stati analizzati sperimentalmente (temperatura ambiente per i nanotubi molecolari, e 6 K per i superreticoli di quantum dots). Nello specifico, nei nanotubi molecolari mostriamo che la macroscopica delocalizzazione coerente delle eccitazioni a temperatura ambiente, che copre centinaia di molecole, può essere considerata un effetto emergente che origina dall’effetto combinato della specifica disposizione geometrica delle molecole e della presenza di accoppiamenti tra subunità del cilindro, incrementati dagli effetti cooperativi. Questi risultati aprono la strada a nuovi modi per ingegnerizzare dei “quantum wires” robusti al rumore grazie alla cooperatività. Inoltre, la presente analisi di sistemi allo stato solido basati su superreticoli di “quantum dots” di perovskite (CsPbBr3) fornisce una base teorica in grado di comprendere recenti osservazioni di emissione superradiante. Sulla base della nostra teoria, suggeriamo che futuri esperimenti dove si utilizzino quantum dots più piccoli, potrebbe aumentare significativamente la robustezza del sistema al rumore termico, aprendo la strada verso la superradianza a temperatura ambiente in sistemi allo stato solido. Si considerano anche i complessi antenna dei Purple Bacteria, dove è ben risaputo che gli effetti cooperativi incrementano il trasferimento e l’accumulo di eccitazioni generate dalla luce assorbita. Mostriamo come queste proprietà possono essere sfruttate per creare un laser ispirato a sistemi biologici e basato su aggregati molecolari, dove la luce solare, benché debole, sarebbe utilizzata come sorgente di pompaggio. Il trasferimento efficiente di energia dentro questo sistema, all’atto pratico, focalizzerebbe l’eccitazione assorbita in direzione di un dimero molecolare, composto da una coppia di molecole interagenti, opportunamente scelte. L’orientazione dei momenti di dipolo di transizione in ciascun dimero è tale da concentrare tutta l’intensità del dipolo nel livello a più alta energia, lasciando lo stato eccitonico inferiore otticamente inattivo. Un dimero molecolare in tale configurazione, che è ideale per ottenere inversione di popolazione, è chiamato “H-dimer”. Tale H-dimer, nell’archittettura qui proposta per un laser ispirato a sistemi biologici, è posto al centro di un aggregato molecolare ispirato a sistemi biologici. Gli H-dimers, eccitati dagli aggregati molecolari circostanti, raggiungono inversione di popolazione e, dunque, possono emettere luce laser quando tali aggregati sono posti in una cavità ottica. Convertire l’energia incoerente fornita dal Sole in un fascio laser coerente supererebbe diverse limitazioni pratiche inerenti all’utilzzo della luce solare come sorgente di energia pulita. Per esempio, i fasci laser sono molto efficienti nell’avviare reazioni chimiche che convertono la luce solare in energia chimica. Inoltre, dal momento che i complessi fotosintetici batterici tendono ad operare nella regione spettrale del vicino infrarosso, la nostra proposta si presta in modo naturale a realizzare laser a infrarossi a corta lunghezza d’onda, i cui fasci viaggerebbero per lunghe distanze senza quasi perdere energia, quindi distribuendo in modo efficiente l’energia solare raccolta. Nella ricerca di un meccanismo comune alla cooperatività e alla sua robustezza, abbiamo confrontato il modello delle coppie di Cooper della superconduttività con la superradianza in singola eccitazione, mostrando molte somiglianze tra i due fenomeni: in particolare, i sistemi superradianti presentano una “gap” immaginaria nel piano complesso (ovvero, una segregazione tra i tempi di vita degli autostati del sistema) che, in modo simile alla gap superconduttiva, rende questi sistemi robusti al rumore statico. Più in generale, mostriamo che ogni interazione a lungo raggio tra i costituenti di un sistema induce effetti collettivi, manifestati da delle gap nello spettro eccitonico. Perciò, la nostra analisi successiva considera l’effetto delle interazioni a lungo raggio sul trasporto eccitonico lungo catene disordinate. Dimostriamo che la presenza di uno stato collettivo ben separato dagli altri stati influenza tutto lo spettro del sistema, generando dei regimi molto controintuitivi dove il trasporto è incrementato dal disordine o è indipendente da esso, e tali regimi si estendono su molti ordini di grandezza nell’intensità del disordine. Dimostriamo anche che una catena fortemente accoppiata a un modo del campo elettromagnetico in una cavità ottica è equivalente a una catena con interazione a lungo raggio, mostrandosi dunque molto promettente per esperimenti e applicazioni future. Nello specifico, mostriamo che catene molecolari realistiche, ioni intrappolati realizzati allo stato dell’arte e atomi di Rydberg sono tutti in grado di raggiungere l’intensità di interazione a lungo raggio tale per cui il trasporto sarebbe incrementato dal disordine o indipendente da esso, puntando alla realizzazione di un trasporto di energia senza dissipazione in “quantum wires” disordinati. / This Ph.D. thesis studies the interplay of cooperativity and noise in realistic systems, largely focusing on superradiance. Cooperative effects emerge from the collective interaction of an ensemble of elements to an external field. Notable examples are superconductivity, where the electron Cooper pairs interact with the lattice vibrations, plasmon excitations, arising from the collective interaction of electrons in a metal with the Coulomb field, and superradiance, that is a cooperative spontaneous emission process stemming from an aggregate of identical emitters. Cooperative effects are typically robust to disorder and noise, making them interesting for applications to quantum devices operating at room temperature. In this work, we first present a general master equation formalism that describes the collective coupling of an aggregate of emitters/absorbers to the electromagnetic field, valid both when the size of the aggregate is larger or smaller than the emitted/absorbed wavelength. Also, the formalism is valid both for weak and strong coupling of the emitters to the electromagnetic field and, most importantly, it allows to correctly describe superradiance in different regimes. Within such formalism, the interplay of superradiance and thermal noise is studied both for molecular nanotubes (of size smaller than the transition wavelength) that are present in the antenna complexes of photosynthetic Green Sulfur Bacteria, and also for novel solid state quantum dot superlattices, having size larger than the emitted wavelength. In both cases it is shown that coherence can persist in presence of thermal noise at the temperatures where these systems have been experimentally analyzed (room temperature for molecular nanotubes, and 6 K for quantum dot superlattices). Specifically, in natural molecular nanotubes we show that the macroscopic coherent delocalization of the excitation at room temperature, covering hundreds of molecules, can be considered an emergent effect originating from the combined effect of the specific geometric disposition of the molecules and the presence of cooperatively enhanced couplings between cylinder subunits. These results open the path to new ways of engineering quantum wires robust to noise thanks to cooperativity. Moreover, our analysis of solid state systems based on perovskite (CsPbBr3) quantum dot superlattices provides a theoretical framework able to explain recent observations of superradiant emission. Based on our theory, we suggest that further experiments, using smaller quantum dots, could significantly increase the robustness of the system to thermal noise, paving the way towards room-temperature superradiance in solid-state systems. We also considered the antenna complexes of Purple Bacteria, where cooperative effects are well known to boost the transfer and storage of photo-absorbed excitations. We show how these properties can be exploited to create a bio-inspired molecular aggregate laser medium, where natural sunlight, although weak, would be used as a pumping source. The efficient energy transfer within this system would effectively focus the absorbed excitation on a suitably chosen molecular dimer, composed by a pair of interacting molecules. The orientation of the molecule transition dipole moment in each dimer is such to concentrate all the dipole strength in the highest energy level, leaving the lower excitonic state dark. A molecular dimer in such configuration, which is ideal to achieve population inversion, is called H-dimer. Such an H-dimer in our proposed architecture for a bio-inspired laser medium, is placed at the center of the bio-inspired molecular aggregates. The H-dimers, pumped by the surrounding molecular aggregates, reach population inversion and, therefore, can lase when such aggregates are placed in an optical cavity. Turning the incoherent energy supply provided by the Sun into a coherent laser beam would overcome several of the practical limitations inherent in using sunlight as a source of clean energy. For example, laser beams are highly effective at driving chemical reactions which convert sunlight into chemical energy. Further, since bacterial photosynthetic complexes tend to operate in the near-infrared spectral region, our proposal naturally lends itself for realising short-wavelength infrared lasers which would allow their beams to travel nearly losslessly over large distances, thus efficiently distributing the collected sunlight energy. In search of a common mechanism to cooperativity and its robustness, we have compared the Cooper pair model of superconductivity and single-excitation superradiance, showing many similarities between the two: in particular, superradiant systems present an imaginary gap in the complex plane (that is, a segregation between the lifetimes of the system eigenstates) that, similarly to the superconducting gap, makes these systems robust to static disorder. More in general, we show that any long-range interaction between the constituents of a system generates collective behaviours, manifested by gaps in the excitonic spectrum. Therefore, our further analysis considers the effect of long-range interactions on excitation transport along disordered chains. We show that the presence of a gapped, collective state affects the whole spectrum of the system, generating quite counter-intuitive disorder-enhanced and disorder-independent transport regimes, that extend over many orders of magnitude of the disorder strength. We also prove that a chain strongly coupled to a cavity mode is equivalent to a long-range interacting chain, thus being very promising for future experiments and applications. Specifically, we show that realistic molecular chains, state-of-the-art trapped ions and Rydberg atoms are all able to reach the needed long-range interaction strength that would show disorder-enhanced or disorder-independent transport, aiming to the realization of dissipationless transport of energy in disordered quantum wires.

The present dissertation focuses on the synthesis of iron(II) complexes and the study of their SCO behavior. The equilibrium between the HS and the LS states gives to the SCO systems large potential applications for molecular electronics. However, today there is not a single molecular device from SCO compounds in the market. This is due to the fact that the SCO systems discovered up to now were unable (e.g. TLIESST « 300 K) for these applications. The aim of this thesis is to synthesize new SCO compounds with sustainable properties for applications. In the beginning of the thesis, [Fe(rac-22a))]2+∙2[BF4]- and [Fe(rac-22b)]2+∙2[BF4]- employing rigid hexadentate ligands were described. In contrast to the expectation, the N-methylation of the amines shifts the equilibrium towards the LS state. [Fe(rac-22b)2+∙2[BF4]- shows a T1/2 higher at 74 K and 52 K than the non methylated [Fe(rac-22a)2+∙2[BF4]- respectively in nitrobenzene and acetonitrile. The T1/2 are solvent-dependent for these complexes. After that, ligand series 9-R2-2-(6-R1-pyridin-2-yl)-1,10-phenanthroline 25b (R2 = Me), 25f (R2 = Ph), 25d (R2 = C(O)H), 25c (R1 = Ph), 25l (R1 = oxylphenyl-4-oxymethylene), 25m (R1 = oxymesitylene) and 25j (R1 = pyrol-1-yl) were synthesized. It was observed that the size of the substituent influences the SCO properties (T1/2). In addition, the influence of the counterion was shown with [Fe(25c)2]2+∙2[BF4]- and [Fe(25c)2]2+∙2[B(Ph)4]-. The B(Ph)4- conterions bring π∙∙∙π interactions in the molecular cell which shift the T1/2 parameter to a high temperature (200 K) compared to the complex with BF4- ions (175 K). Moreover the substituents R1 on the terminal position of the pyridine effect on T1/2 more than the substituents R2 on the terminal position of the phenanthroline. For example, [Fe(25f)]2+∙2[BF4]- (R1 = Ph) is a pure HS complex while the complex [Fe(25c)]2+∙2[BF4]- (R2 = Ph) is a SCO system (T1/2 = 175 K). The expansion of the coordination mode from N6 to N8 was investigated by the synthesis of the tetradentate ligands. This expansion shows an unexpected coordination mode, [Fe(25i)2]2+∙2[BF4]- (R2 = pyrazol-1-yl) forms a distorted square antiprism coordination geometry (HS iron(II)-complex) and does not show any Fe-N bond breaking over the application of the temperature as expected. / Die vorliegende Dissertation behandelt die Synthese von Eisen(II)-Komplexen und ihr spin crossover (SCO)-Verhalten. Das Gleichgewicht zwischen high-spin (HS)- und low-spin (LS)-Zustand verleiht den SCO-Systemen eine großes Anwendungspotential im Bereich der molekularen Elektronik. Dennoch existiert bis heute kein SCO-basiertes molekulares Bauteil auf dem Markt. Hauptgrund hierfür ist, dass die bislang bekannten SCO-Systeme keine hinreichenden Eigenschaften (z.B. TLIESST « 300 K) aufweisen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Synthese neuer SCO-Verbindungen mit geeigneten Eigenschaften für die Anwendung. Zu Beginn der Arbeit werden die Komplexe [Fe(rac-22a)]2+∙2[BF4]– und [Fe(rac-22b)]2+ ∙2[BF4]– mit starren hexadentaten Liganden beschrieben. Entgegen der Erwartung verschiebt die N-Methylierung der Amine das Gleichgewicht in Richtung des LS-Zustandes. Verglichen mit dem nicht-methylierten Komplex Fe(rac-22b)]2+∙2[BF4]– zeigt Fe(rac-22a)]2+∙2[BF4]– eine höhere Übergangstemperatur T1/2, welche in Nitrobenzen 74 K und in Acetonitril 52 K beträgt. Für die Komplexe ist T1/2 lösungsmittelabhängig. Im Folgenden wurde die Ligandenserie 9-R2-2-(6-R1-pyridin-2-yl)-1,10-phenanthrolin mit den Vertretern 25b (R2= Me), 25f (R2 = Ph), 25d (R2 = C(O)H, 25c (R1 = Ph), 25l (R1 = oxyphenyl-4-oxymethylen), 25m (R1 = oxymesitylen) und 25j (R1 = pyrol-1-yl) hergestellt. Es wurde beobachtet, dass die Größe des Substituenten das SCO-Verhalten (T1/2) beeinflusst. Ergänzend wurde der Einfluss des Gegenions anhand der Komplexe [Fe(25c)]2+∙2[BF4]– und [Fe(25c)]2+∙2[B(Ph)4]– untersucht. Das Gegenion B(Ph)4– ermöglicht intra- und intermolekulare π···π-Wechselwirkungen in der Zelle, welche die Übergangstemperature T1/2 (200 K) gegenüber dem BF4–-Komplex (175 K) erhöhen. Des Weiteren beeinflussen die Substituenten R1 an der Pyridin-Einheit die ubergangskomplexes T1/2 stärker als die Substituenten R2 an der Phenanthrolin-Einheit. So ist [Fe(25f)]2+∙2[BF4]– (R1 = Ph) ein reiner HS-Komplex, während der Komplex [Fe(25c)]2+∙2[BF4]– (R2 = Ph) ein SCO-System ist (T1/2 = 175 K). Die Erhöhung der Koordinationszahl von N6 auf N8 wurde über die Synthese von tetradentaten Liganden untersucht. Diese Erhöhung führt zu einem unerwarteten Koordinationsmodus. So bildet [Fe(25i)]2+∙2[BF4]– (R2 = pyrazol-1-yl) eine quadratisch-antiprismatische Koordinationssphäre (HS Eisen(II)-Komplex) und zeigt, wie erwartet, über den untersuchten Temperaturbereich keine Fe–N-Bindungsspaltung.

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