Autonomous implementation of thermodynamic cycles at the nanoscale
Autonomous implementation of thermodynamic cycles at the nanoscale
Strasberg, P.; Wächtler, C. W.; Schaller, G.
There are two paradigms to study nanoscale engines in stochastic and quantum thermodynamics.
Autonomous models, which do not rely on any external time-dependence, and models that make use of time-dependent control fields, often combined with dividing the control protocol into idealized strokes of a thermodynamic cycle. While the latter paradigm offers theoretical simplifications, its utility in practice has been questioned due to the involved approximations. Here, we bridge the two paradigms by constructing an autonomous model, which implements a thermodynamic cycle in a certain parameter regime. This effect is made possible by self-oscillations, realized in our model by the well studied electron shuttling mechanism. Based on experimentally realistic values, we find that a thermodynamic cycle analysis for a single-electron working fluid is unrealistic, but already a few-electron working fluid could suffice to justify it. We also briefly discuss additional open challenges to autonomously implement the more studied Carnot and Otto cycles.
Keywords: thermodynamic cycle; self-oscillation; autonomous control; electron shuttle
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Contribution to WWW
https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.05027 -
Physical Review Letters 126(2021), 180605
Online First (2021) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.180605
ISSN: 0031-9007
Cited 19 times in Scopus
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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-32044