Abstract
With the progress of nano-technology, thermodynamics also has to be scaled down, calling for specific protocols to extract and measure work. Usually, such protocols involve the action of an external, classical field (the battery) of infinite energy, that controls the energy levels of a small quantum system (the calorific fluid). Here we suggest a realistic device to reversibly extract work in a battery of finite energy : a hybrid optomechanical system. Such devices consist of an optically active two-level quantum system interacting strongly with a nano-mechanical oscillator that provides and stores mechanical work, playing the role of the battery. We identify protocols where the battery exchanges large, measurable amounts of work with the quantum emitter without getting entangled with it. When the quantum emitter is coupled to a thermal bath, we show that thermodynamic reversibility is attainable with state-of-the-art devices, paving the road towards the realization of a full cycle of information-to-energy conversion at the single bit level.
Highlights
INTRODUCTIONThermodynamics was born in the 19th century, with the practical purpose of understanding the mechanism governing the conversion of heat present in reservoirs of disorganized energy, into useful mechanical work extracted in reservoirs of organized energy, by exploiting the transformations of a calorific fluid (Fig.1a)
When the quantum emitter is coupled to a thermal bath, we show that thermodynamic reversibility is attainable with state-of-the-art devices, paving the road towards the realization of a full cycle of information-to-energy conversion at the single bit level
Thermodynamics was born in the 19th century, with the practical purpose of understanding the mechanism governing the conversion of heat present in reservoirs of disorganized energy, into useful mechanical work extracted in reservoirs of organized energy, by exploiting the transformations of a calorific fluid (Fig.1a)
Summary
Thermodynamics was born in the 19th century, with the practical purpose of understanding the mechanism governing the conversion of heat present in reservoirs of disorganized energy, into useful mechanical work extracted in reservoirs of organized energy, by exploiting the transformations of a calorific fluid (Fig.1a). Instead of deriving work from the time-resolved measurement of the system state, or the readout of an ancillary qubit state, we show that only two measurements of the battery’s energy, at the initial and final times of the thermodynamic transformation, are required With this aim, we show that a hybrid opto-mechanical device constitutes a very suitable experimental platform. Owing to its small size and its large interaction strength with the quantum system, we expect the battery to be visibly affected by the elementary work produced during the conversion of a single bit of information Since it involves a quantum bit, such an hybrid system could be used for the experimental exploration of quantum information to energy conversion. We show that the periodic dynamics of the device can be seen as series of Landauer’s erasures and Szilard engines, where one bit of information is reversibly converted to an elementary work stored in/extracted from the mechanical oscillator
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