Related papers: Optimal quantum interference thermoelectric heat e…
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 describe here the first experimental realization of a heat interferometer, thermal counterpart of the well-known superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). These findings demonstrate, on the first place, the existence of…
The Carnot heat engine sets an upper bound on the efficiency of a heat engine. As an ideal, reversible engine, a single cycle must be performed in infinite time, and so the Carnot engine has zero power. However, there is nothing in…
We consider the efficiency at maximum power of a quantum Otto engine, which uses a spin or a harmonic system as its working substance and works between two heat reservoirs at constant temperatures $T_h$ and $T_c$ $ (<T_h)$. Although the…
We analyze a quantum heat engine described by the full Dicke model. The system exhibit quantum phase transitions under certain conditions. We consider the system performing a Stirling thermodynamic cycle. We obtain an enhancement of…
Non-equilibrium effects may have a profound impact on the performance of thermal devices performing thermodynamic tasks such as refrigeration or heat pumping. The possibility of enhancing the performance of thermodynamic operations by means…
The quantum engine cycle serves as an analogous representation of the macroscopic nature of heat engines and the quantum regime of thermal devices composed of a single element. In this work, we follow the formalism of a quantum engine…
We explore the dependence of the performance bounds of heat engines and refrigerators on the initial quantum state and the subsequent evolution of their piston, modeled by a quantized harmonic oscillator. Our goal is to provide a fully…
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,…
The heat capacity $\mathcal{C}$ of a given probe is a fundamental quantity that determines, among other properties, the maximum precision in temperature estimation. In turn, $\mathcal{C}$ is limited by a quadratic scaling with the number of…
Following the rising interest in quantum information science, the extension of a heat engine to the quantum regime by exploring microscopic quantum systems has seen a boom of interest in the last decade. Although quantum coherence in the…
We investigate quantum transport and thermoelectrical properties of a finite-size Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, a paradigmatic model for a one-dimensional topological insulator, which displays topologically protected edge states. By coupling…
We consider the performance of periodically driven stochastic heat engines in the linear response regime. Reaching the theoretical bounds for efficiency and efficiency at maximum power typically requires full control over the design and the…
We consider a thermodynamic machine in which the working fluid is a quantized harmonic oscillator that is controlled on timescales that are much faster than the oscillator period. We find that operation in this `fast' regime allows access…
We have determined the finite temperature coherence length of edge states in the Integer Quantum Hall Effect (IQHE) regime. This was realized by measuring the visibility of electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometers of different sizes, at…
We propose a scheme for a single-atom quantum heat engine based on ultra-cold atom technologies. Building on the high degree of control typical of cold atom systems, we demonstrate that three paradigmatic heat engines -- Carnot, Otto and…
Observation of interference in the quantum Hall regime may be hampered by a small edge state velocity due to finite phase coherence time. Therefore designing two quantum point contact (QPCs) interferometers having a high edge state velocity…
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…
Based on quantum thermodynamic processes, we make a quantum-mechanical (QM) extension of the typical heat engine cycles, such as the Carnot, Brayton, Otto, and Diesel cycles, etc. The temperature is not included in these QM engine cycles,…
The triumph of heat engines is their ability to convert the disordered energy of thermal sources into useful mechanical motion. In recent years, much effort has been devoted to generalizing thermodynamic notions to the quantum regime,…