Quantum Thermodynamics and Optomechanics

Abstract

Thermodynamics was developed in the 19th century to study steam engines using the cyclical transformations of a working substance to extract heat from thermal baths and convert it into work, possibly stored in a battery. This applied science eventually led to the development of fundamental concepts such as irreversibility. Quantum thermodynamics aims at revisiting these results when the working substances, baths and batteries become quantum systems. Its results are still mainly theoretical. This thesis therefore propose methods to measure work in situ, directly inside the battery, and demonstrate the potential of two platforms to pave the way to the experimental exploration of this fast-growing field.First, I studied hybrid optomechanical systems which consist of a qubit coupled to the electromagnetic field on the one hand, and to a mechanical resonator on the other hand. The qubit's transition frequency is modulated by the vibrations of the mechanical system that exerts in this way a force on the qubit. The mechanical degree of freedom exchanges work with the qubit and therefore behaves like a dispersive battery, i.e. whose natural frequency is very different from the one of the qubit's transition. Finally, the electromagnetic field plays the role of the bath. I showed that the fluctuations of the mechanical energy are equal to the fluctuations of work, which allows the direct measurement of entropy production. As a result, hybrid optomechanical systems are promising for experimentally testing fluctuation theorems in open quantum systems. In addition, I studied optomechanical energy conversion. I showed that a hybrid optomechanical system can be considered as an autonomous and reversible thermal machine allowing either to cool the mechanical resonator or to build a coherent phonon state starting from thermal noise.Secondly, I showed that a two-stroke quantum engine extracting work from a single, non-thermal, bath can be made. The qubit is embedded in a one-dimensional waveguide and the battery is the waveguide mode of same frequency as the qubit's transition. Therefore, this is a resonant battery, unlike in the previous case. First, the qubit is coupled to the engineered bath, source of energy and coherence, that makes it relax in a experimentally controllable superposition of energy states. Secondly, the bath is disconnected and work is extracted by driving the qubit with a resonant coherent field. This kind of system, called one-dimensional atom, can be implemented in superconducting or semiconducting circuits. The coherence of the qubit's state improves the performances of this engine both in the regime of classical drive, where a large number of photons is injected in the battery, and in the quantum drive regime of low photon numbers.This thesis evidences the potential of hybrid optomechanical systems and one-dimensional atoms to explore experimentally on the one hand, irreversibility and fluctuation theorems, and on the other hand, the role of coherence in work extraction.