Related papers: Work and energy gain of heat-pumped quantized ampl…

We show a quantum boost in the output power of a heat engine formed by a two-level system coupled to a single-mode cavity. The key ingredient here is the nonstationary regime achieved when some system parameter (atomic transition frequency,…

Quantum parametric amplifiers typically generate by operating in proximity to a point of dynamical instability. We consider an alternate general strategy where quantum-limited, large-gain amplification is achieved without any proximity to a…

Quantum amplifier is an essential device in quantum information processing. As in the classical (non-quantum) case, its characteristic uncertainty needs to be suppressed by feedback, and in fact such a control theory for a single quantum…

One of the fundamental questions in quantum thermodynamics concerns the decomposition of energetic changes into heat and work. Contrary to classical engines, the entropy change of the piston cannot be neglected in the quantum domain. As a…

Quantization of energy is a quintessential characteristic of quantum systems. Here we analyze its effects on the operation of Otto cycle heat machines and show that energy quantization alone may alter and increase machine performance in…

Phase-insensitive optical amplifiers uniformly amplify each quadrature of an input field and are of both fundamental and technological importance. We find the quantum limit on the precision of estimating the gain of a quantum-limited…

We analyze a heat engine based on a hot cavity connected via quantum wells to electronic reservoirs. We discuss the output power as well as the efficiency both in the linear and nonlinear regime. We find that the device delivers a large…

Amplifier is at the heart of almost all experiment carrying out the precise measurement of a weak signal. An idea amplifier should have large gain and minimum added noise simultaneously. Here, we consider the quantum measurement properties…

We describe a new kind of phase-preserving quantum amplifier which utilizes dissipative interactions in a parametrically-coupled three-mode bosonic system. The use of dissipative interactions provides a fundamental advantage over standard…

We consider the interaction between a Bose-Einstein condensate and a single-mode quantized light field in the presence of a strong far off-resonant pump laser. The dynamics is characterized by an exponential instability, hence the system…

Recent evidence suggests that quantum effects may have functional importance in biological light-harvesting systems. Along with delocalized electronic excitations, it is now suspected that quantum coherent interactions with certain…

The striking nonlinear effects exhibited by cavity QED systems make them a powerful tool in modern condensed matter and atomic physics. A recently discovered example is the quantized pumping of energy into a cavity by a strongly-coupled,…

We give an overview of our recent theoretical studies of the thermodynamics of excitons, and other solid-state qubits, driven by time-dependent laser fields. We consider a single such emitter and describe how the formation of strong-field…

We develop a generic model for a cyclic quantum heat engine that makes it possible to coherently amplify a periodically modulated input signal without the need to couple the working medium to multiple reservoirs at the same time. Instead,…

It is well known that heat pumps, while being all limited by the same basic thermodynamic laws, may find realization on systems as "small" and "quantum" as a three-level maser. In order to quantitatively assess how the performance of these…

A new scenario for energy distribution, security and shareability is presented that assumes the availability of quantum information heat engines and a thermal bath. It is based on the convertibility between entropy and work in the presence…

We investigate the quantum thermodynamical properties of localised relativistic quantum fields, and how they can be used as quantum thermal machines. We study the efficiency and power of energy transfer between the classical gravitational…

We analyze a heat machine based on a periodically-driven quantum system permanently coupled to hot and cold baths. It is shown that the maximal power output of a degenerate $V$-type three-level heat engine is that generated by two…

Despite the increasing interest, the research field which studies the concepts of work and heat at quantum level has suffered from two main drawbacks: first, the difficulty to properly define and measure the work, heat and internal energy…

We provide a thorough theoretical analysis of qubit state measurement in a setup where a driven, parametrically-coupled cavity system is directly coupled to the qubit, with one of the cavities having a weak Kerr nonlinearity. Such a system…