Related papers: On the exploitability of thermo-charged capacitors
Using recent fluctuation theorems from nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, we extend the theory for voltage fluctuations in electric circuits to power and heat fluctuations. They could be of particular relevance for the functioning of…
We provide a framework for optimizing energy conversion processes in coherent quantum conductors fed by nonthermal resources. Such nonthermal resources, which cannot be characterized by temperatures or electrochemical potentials, occur in…
Despite its historical importance, a perfect gas enclosed by a pistons and in contact with a thermal reservoirs is a system still largely under study. Its thermodynamic properties are not yet well understood when driven under…
We show that systems with negative specific heat can violate the zeroth law of thermodynamics. By both numerical simulations and by using exact expressions for free energy and microcanonical entropy it is shown that if two systems with the…
Mesoscopic thermoelectric heat engine is much anticipated as a device that allows us to utilize with high efficiency wasted heat inaccessible by conventional heat engines. However, the derivation of the heat current in this engine seems to…
Fluctuations are strong in mesoscopic systems and have to be taken into account for the description of transport. We show that they can even be used as a resource for the operation of a system as a device. We use the physics of…
We show that the vacuum (zero-point) energy of a low-temperature quantum liquid is a variable property which changes with the state of the system, in notable contrast to the static vacuum energy in solids commonly considered. We further…
As a fundamental requisite for thermotronics, controlling heat flow has been a longstanding quest in solid state physics. Recently, there has been a lot of interest in nanoscale hybrid systems as possible candidates for thermal devices. In…
We describe how electromagnetically induced transparency may be used to construct a non-traditional near-ideal quantum heat engine as constrained by the Second Law. The engine is pumped by a thermal reservoir that may be either hotter or…
Absorption refrigerators transfer thermal energy from a cold bath to a hot bath without input power by utilizing heat from an additional "work" reservoir. Particularly interesting is a three-level design for a quantum absorption…
Heat transfer properties in non-reciprocal systems are discussed. An ideal experiment employing microwave or optical isolators is considered in order to investigate the possibility for a spontaneous transfer of energy between two black…
In this article we review the thermoelectric properties of three terminal devices with Coulomb coupled quantum dots (QDs) as observed in recent experiments [1,2]. The system we consider consists of two Coulomb-blockade QDs one of which can…
The model of hypothetical superconductivity, where the energy gap asymptotically approaches zero as temperature increases, has been proposed. Formally the critical temperature of such a superconductor is equal to infinity. For practical…
This manuscript reports a semiconductor-sensitized thermal cell (STC) that converts ambient heat into electrical power while simultaneously reducing its own temperature under isothermal conditions. Using a printable…
Quantum batteries are prone to loosing their stored charge, when interacting with a thermal environment. However, getting a limited assistance from the thermal environment, is it possible to recover the charge back, in a reusable form? Here…
A mechanism of electron-mediated pumping of heat in the absence of net charge transfer is proposed. It may be realized in charge-neutral electron systems, such as graphene, coupled to an external electric potential. The flow of heat in this…
A semiclassical formalism is used to investigate the transistor-like behavior of ultracold atoms in a triple-well potential. Atom current flows from the source well, held at fixed chemical potential and temperature, into an empty drain…
We derive the expressions of photon energy and particle currents inside an open nanosystem interacting with light using non-equilibrium Green's functions. The model allows different temperatures for the electron reservoirs, which basically…
The generation of thermopower in a miniaturized device modeled as a channel connected to reservoirs/contacts maintained at different temperatures is studied in this work. The left reservoir is also coupled to a periodic THz driving source…
We demonstrate that when a quantum dot is embedded between the two reservoirs described by different statistical distribution functions, the reverse flow and amplification of heat can be realized by regulating the energy levels of the…