Related papers: Quantum heat engine based on photon-assisted Coope…
Modern technologies could soon make it possible to investigate the operation cycles of quantum heat engines by counting the photons that are emitted and absorbed by their working systems. Using the quantum jump approach to open-system…
The theory of quantum thermodynamics predicts fundamental bounds on work extraction from quantum states. As these bounds are derived in a very general and abstract setting, it is unclear how relevant they are in an experimental context,…
The advent of quantum optical techniques based on superconducting circuits has opened new regimes in the study of the non-linear interaction of light with matter. Of particular interest has been the creation of non-classical states of…
We study two different models of optomechanical systems where a temperature gradient between two radiation baths is exploited for inducing self-sustained coherent oscillations of a mechanical resonator. Viewed from a thermodynamic…
Conventional continuous quantum heat engines with incoherent heat transfer perform poorly as they exploit two-body interactions between the system and hot or cold baths, thus having limited capability to outperform their classical…
Coherent interconversion between optical and mechanical excitations in an optomechanical cavity can be used to engineer a quantum heat engine. This heat engine is based on an Otto cycle between a cold photonic reservoir and a hot phononic…
Hybrid quantum systems can often be described in terms of polaritons. These are quasiparticles formed of superpositions of their constituents, with relative weights depending on some control parameter in their interaction. In many cases,…
We present a quantum heat switch based on coupled superconducting qubits, connected to two $LC$ resonators that are terminated by resistors providing two heat baths. To describe the system we use a standard second order master equation with…
We investigate theoretically a quantum optomechanical realization of a heat engine. In a generic optomechanical arrangement the optomechanical coupling between the cavity field and the oscillating end-mirror results in polariton normal mode…
We propose a quantum-enhanced heat engine with entanglement. The key feature of our scheme is superabsorption, which facilitates enhanced energy absorption by entangled qubits. Whereas a conventional engine with $N$ separable qubits…
Entangled states are an important resource for quantum information processing and for the fundamental understanding of quantum physics. An intriguing open question would be whether entanglement can improve the performance of quantum heat…
The efficiency of macroscopic heat engines is restricted by the second law of thermodynamics. They can reach at most the efficiency of a Carnot engine. In contrast, heat currents in mesoscopic heat engines show fluctuations. Thus, there is…
Josephson-photonics devices have emerged in the last years as versatile platforms to study light-charge interactions far from equilibrium and to create nonclassical radiation. Their potential to operate as nanoscale heat engines has also…
We analyze tunneling of Cooper pairs across voltage biased asymmetric single-Cooper-pair transistors. Also tunneling of Cooper pairs across two capacitively coupled Cooper-pair boxes is considered, when the capacitive coupling and Cooper…
We put forward a quantum-optical model for a thermal diode based on heat transfer between two thermal baths through a pair of interacting qubits. We find that if the qubits are coupled by a Raman field that induces an anisotropic…
We discuss whether, and under which conditions, it is possible to realize a heat engine simply by dynamically modulating the couplings between the quantum working medium and thermal reservoirs. For that purpose, we consider the paradigmatic…
A single-piston quantum engine based on a harmonic oscillator acting as the working fluid is proposed. Using the fact that the interaction between the piston and the oscillator depends on the extent of the oscillator wavefunction, one can…
The question of whether quantum coherence is a resource beneficial or detrimental to the performance of quantum heat engines has been thoroughly studied but remains undecided. To isolate the contribution of coherence, we analyze the…
The heat engine, a machine that extracts useful work from thermal sources, is one of the basic theoretical constructs and fundamental applications of classical thermodynamics. The classical description of a heat engine does not include…
We consider a photo--Carnot engine that consists of a single--mode radiation field in an optical cavity. One the heat reservoirs is made of a beam of thermally entangled pairs of two--level atoms that interact resonantly with the cavity. We…