Related papers: Reaching optimal efficiencies using nano-sized pho…
Optical tweezers enable non-contact trapping of micro-scale objects using light. Despite their widespread use, it is currently not known how tightly it is possible to three-dimensionally trap micro-particles with a given photon budget.…
We study the maximum efficiency of a Carnot cycle heat engine based on a small system. It is revealed that due to the finiteness of the system, irreversibility may arise when the working substance contacts with a heat bath. As a result,…
We study a refrigerator model which consists of two $n$-level systems interacting via a pulsed external field. Each system couples to its own thermal bath at temperatures $T_h$ and $T_c$, respectively ($\theta\equiv T_c/T_h<1$). The…
We demonstrate strong coupling of single photons emitted by individual molecules at cryogenic and ambient conditions to individual nanoparticles. We provide images obtained both in transmission and reflection, where an efficiency greater…
Emitter ensembles interact collectively with the radiation field. In the case of a one-dimensional array of atoms near a nanofiber, this collective light-matter interaction does not only lead to an increased photon coupling to the guided…
Electrically-driven light emission from carbon nanotubes could be exploited in nano-scale lasers and single-photon sources, and has therefore been the focus of much research. However, to date, high electric fields and currents have been…
Highly efficient coupling of photons from nanoemitters into single-mode optical fibers is demonstrated using tapered fibers. 7.4 +/- 1.2 % of the total emitted photons from single CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals were coupled into a 300-nm-diameter…
We investigate the performance of an underdamped stochastic heat engine for a time-dependent harmonic oscillator. We analytically determine the optimal protocol that maximizes the efficiency at fixed power. The maximum efficiency reduces to…
We report on a photodetector in which colloidal quantum-dots directly bridge nanometer-spaced electrodes. Unlike in conventional quantum-dot thin film photodetectors, charge mobility no longer plays a role in our quantum-dot junctions as…
A thermoelectric device is a heat engine that directly converts heat into electricity. Many materials with a high figure of merit ZT have been discovered in anticipation of a high thermoelectric efficiency. However, there has been a lack of…
We investigate thermoelectric efficiency of systems with broken time reversal symmetry under a three-terminal transport. Using a model of Aharonov-Bohm interferometer formed with three noninteracting quantum dots, we show that Carnot…
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…
Nano-scaled metallic or dielectric structures may provide various ways to trap light into thin-film solar cells for improving the conversion efficiency. In most schemes, the textured active layers are involved into light trapping structures…
We demonstrate a method for efficient coupling of guided light from a single mode optical fiber to nanophotonic devices. Our approach makes use of single-sided conical tapered optical fibers that are evanescently coupled over the last ~10…
An efficient quantum storage is highly desired for quantum information processing. As indicated by certain applications, a universal quantum storage is required to have a storage efficiency above 50% to beat the no-cloning limit. Although…
We study emission of photoelectrons from plasmonic nanoparticles into surrounding matrix. We consider two mechanisms of the photoelectric effect from nanoparticles - surface and volume ones, and use models of these two effects which allow…
In contrast to designing nanophotonic devices by tuning a handful of device parameters, we have developed a computational method which utilizes the full parameter space to design linear nanophotonic devices. We show that our method may…
We consider the excitation of electrons in semiconducting carbon nanotubes by photons from the evanescent field created by a subwavelength-diameter optical fiber. The strongly changing evanescent field of such nanofibers requires dropping…
We report on the role of plasmonic resonances in determining the delicate balance between scattering and absorption of light in nanometric particle arrays applied to the front surface of solar cells. Strong parasitic absorption is shown to…
We investigate a Brownian heat engine wherein a particle moves through a periodic ratchet potential under an exponentially decreasing temperature profile, a spatial configuration that closely resembles experimentally realizable conditions…