Related papers: Optimizing Thermodynamic Cycles with Two Finite-Si…
Thermoelectric effects, such as the generation of a particle current by a temperature gradient, have their origin in a reversible coupling between heat and particle flows. These effects are fundamental probes for materials and have…
This thesis is devoted to the theoretical study of slow thermodynamic processes in non-equilibrium stochastic systems. Its main result is a physically and mathematically consistent construction of relevant thermodynamic quantities in the…
We have studied the single particle heat engine and refrigerator driven by time asymmetric protocol of finite duration. Our system consists of a particle in a harmonic trap with time-periodic strength that drives the particle cyclically…
Considerable attention has been devoted to microscopic heat engines in both theoretical and experimental aspects. Notably, the fundamental limits pertaining to power and efficiency, as well as the tradeoff relations between these two…
We investigate the thermodynamic efficiency of sub-micro-scale heat engines operating under the conditions described by over-damped stochastic thermodynamics. We prove that at maximum power the efficiency obeys for constant isotropic…
From the thermodynamic equilibrium properties of a two-level system with variable energy-level gap $\Delta$, and a careful distinction between the Gibbs relation $dE = T dS + (E/\Delta) d\Delta$ and the energy balance equation $dE = \delta…
The unavoidable irreversible losses of power in a heat engine are found to be of quantum origin. Following thermodynamic tradition a model quantum heat engine operating by the Otto cycle is analyzed. The working medium of the model is…
Periodic driving is used to operate machines that go from standard macroscopic engines to small non-equilibrium micro-sized systems. Two classes of such systems are small heat engines driven by periodic temperature variations and molecular…
With the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model as an illustration, we construct a thermodynamic cycle composed of two isothermal processes and two isomagnetic field processes and study the thermodynamic performance of this cycle accompanied by…
Heat engines should ideally have large power output, operate close to Carnot efficiency and show constancy, i.e., exhibit only small fluctuations in this output. For steady-state heat engines, driven by a constant temperature difference…
Quantum cycles in established heat engines can be modeled with various quantum systems as working substances. For example, a heat engine can be modeled with an infinite potential well as the working substance to determine the efficiency and…
We generalize stochastic thermodynamics to include information reservoirs. Such information reservoirs, which can be modeled as a sequence of bits, modify the second law. For example, work extraction from a system in contact with a single…
In this article we use optimal control to maximize the efficiency of a quantum heat engine executing the Otto cycle in the presence of external noise. We optimize the engine performance for both amplitude and phase noise. In the case of…
We explore the consequences of a deterministic microscopic thermostat-reservoir contact mechanism. With different temperature reservoirs at each end of a two-dimensional system, a heat current is produced and the system has an anomalous…
A theoretical thermodynamic cycle more efficient than an infinite set of Carnot engines is presented. This result is unexpected from the point of view of classical thermodynamics.
Steady-state quantum thermal machines are typically characterized by a continuous flow of heat between different reservoirs. However, at the level of discrete stochastic realizations, heat flow is unraveled as a series of abrupt quantum…
We study the refrigerator working between a finite-sized cold heat bath and an infinite-sized hot heat bath (environment) in the nonlinear response regime. We assume that the initial temperature $T_i$ of the finite-sized cold heat bath…
Real quantum heat engines lack the separation of time and length scales that is characteristic for classical engines. They must be understood as open quantum systems in non-equilibrium with time-controlled coupling to thermal reservoirs as…
The widely debated feasibility of thermodynamic machines achieving Carnot efficiency at finite power has been convincingly dismissed. Yet, the common wisdom that efficiency can only be optimal in the limit of infinitely-slow processes…
We experimentally demonstrate a nano-scale stochastic Stirling heat engine operating in the underdamped regime. The setup involves an optically levitated silica particle that is subjected to a power-varying optical trap and periodically…