Abstract
The performance of endoreversible thermal machines operating at finite power constitutes one of the main challenges of nonequilibrium classical and quantum thermodynamics, engineering and others. We introduce the idea of adjusting the interaction time asymmetry in order to optimize the engine performance. We consider one of the simplest thermal machines, composed of a quantum dot interacting sequentially with two different reservoirs of heat and particles. Distinct optimization protocols are analyzed in the framework of stochastic thermodynamics. Results reveal that asymmetric interaction times play a fundamental role in enhancing the power output and that maximizations can provide an increase larger than 25\% the symmetric case. As an extra advantage, efficiencies at maximum power are slightly greater than the endoreversible Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency for a broad range of reservoir temperatures.
Highlights
The efficiency of any heat engine is bounded by Carnot efficiency ηC = 1 − TC/TH, with TC and TH being the cold and hot reservoir temperatures
Results reveal that asymmetric interaction times play a fundamental role in enhancing the power output and that maximizations can provide an increase of more than 25% compared with the symmetric case
We analyzed the role of asymmetric interaction times for optimizing the power output in thermal machines composed of a quantum dot stochastic pump
Summary
The efficiency of any heat engine is bounded by Carnot efficiency ηC = 1 − TC/TH, with TC and TH being the cold and hot reservoir temperatures It constitutes one of the main results of thermodynamics and is one of the distinct formulations of the second law. Powerful guide as to the operation of nonequilibrium engines under more realistic situations and sheds light on the construction and performance of small-scale engines (nanoscopic devices) working in a maximum power regime from the tools of stochastic thermodynamics [3,4,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24] In this context, single-level quantum dots have been proposed as prototype machines, whose simplicity allows detailed investigation of their performances at maximum power [25,26,27].
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