Related papers: Thermoelectric efficiency at maximum power in a qu…
The energy efficiency and power of a three-terminal thermoelectric nanodevice are studied by considering elastic tunneling through a single quantum dot. Facilitated by the three-terminal geometry, the nanodevice is able to generate…
We analyze the nanocaloritronic performance of an interacting quantum dot that is subject to an applied bias and an applied temperature gradient. It is now well known that, in the absence of phonon contribution, a weakly coupled…
We discuss the efficiency of a heat engine operating in a nonequilibrium steady state maintained by two heat reservoirs. Within the general framework of linear irreversible thermodynamics we derive a universal upper bound on the efficiency…
We derive a bound on the efficiency of thermal engines that can be sharper than Carnot's limit. It is a function of statistical correlations between the engine internal state and Hamiltonian, can be saturated even in finite-time cycles, and…
We study the optimal performance of an endoreversible quantum dot heat engine, in which the heat transfer between the system and baths is mediated by qubits, operating under the conditions of a trade-off objective function known as maximum…
If the work per cycle of a quantum heat engine is averaged over an appropriate prior distribution for an external parameter $a$, the work becomes optimal at Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency. More general priors of the form $\Pi(a) \propto…
Quantum dots (QDs) can serve as near perfect energy filters and are therefore of significant interest for the study of thermoelectric energy conversion close to thermodynamic efficiency limits. Indeed, recent experiments in [Nat. Nano. 13,…
We study the thermoelectric properties and heat-to-work conversion performance of an interacting, multi-level quantum dot (QD) weakly coupled to electronic reservoirs. We focus on the sequential tunneling regime. The dynamics of the charge…
We consider a class of quantum heat engines consisting of two subsystems interacting via a unitary transformation and coupled to two separate baths at different temperatures $T_h > T_c$. The purpose of the engine is to extract work due to…
We investigate a thermoelectric nano-engine whose properties are steered by Coulomb interaction. The device whose design decouples charge and energy currents is made up of two interacting quantum dots connected to three different…
Photon impingement is capable of liberating electrons in electronic devices and driving the electron flux from the lower chemical potential to higher chemical potential. Previous studies hinted that the thermodynamic efficiency of a…
The efficiency at maximum power (EMP) of heat engines operating as generators is one corner stone of finite-time thermodynamics, the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency $\eta_{\rm CA}$ being considered as a universal upper bound. Yet, no valid…
We study a quantum thermal engine model for which the heat transfer law is determined by Einstein's theory of radiation. The working substance of the quantum engine is assumed to be a two-level quantum systems of which the constituent…
We present a unified perspective on nonequilibrium heat engines by generalizing nonlinear irreversible thermodynamics. For tight-coupling heat engines, a generic constitutive relation of nonlinear response accurate up to the quadratic order…
We present a detailed study of a three-level quantum heat engine operating at maximum efficient power function, a trade-off objective function defined by the product of the efficiency and power output of the engine. First, for near…
Sadi Carnot's theorem regarding the maximum efficiency of heat engines is considered to be of fundamental importance in thermodynamics. This theorem famously states that the maximum efficiency depends only on the temperature of the heat…
We introduce a simple two-level heat engine to study the efficiency in the condition of the maximum power output, depending on the energy levels from which the net work is extracted. In contrast to the quasi-statically operated Carnot…
We consider two modifications of a recently proposed three-terminal quantum dot heat engine. First, we investigate the necessity of the thermalization assumption, namely that electrons are always thermalized by inelastic processes when…
Molecular junctions and similar devices described by an energy dependent transmission coefficient can have a high linear response thermoelectric figure of merit. Since such devices are inherently non-linear, the full thermodynamic…
Continuous particle exchange thermal machines require no time-dependent driving, can be realised in solid-state electronic devices, and miniaturised to nanometre scale. Quantum dots, providing a narrow energy filter and allowing to…