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arXiv:2205.13290

Finite-time quantum Otto engine with a squeezed thermal bath: Role of quantum coherence and squeezing in the performance and fluctuations

Xiao Ping Yang, Dehua Liu, Jizhou He, Wu‐Ming Liu, Wang, Jianhui

Published May 26, 2022• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider a finite-time quantum Otto heat engine that consists of two isochoric (thermal-contact) process, where the system is alternatively coupled to a hot squeezed and a cold thermal reservoir, and two unitary driven strokes, where the system is isolated from these two baths and its von Neumann entropy keeps constant. Both quantum inner friction and coherence are generated along the driven stroke and coherence cannot be fully erased after the finite-time hot isochore. Using full counting statistics, we present the probability distribution functions of heat injection and total work per cycle, which are dependent on the time duration along each process. With these, we derive the analytical expressions for the thermodynamic quantities of the two-level heat engine, such as total work, thermodynamic efficiency, entropy production, and work fluctuations, in which effects of coherence, squeezing, inner friction and finite-time heat exchange are included. We then numerically determine the thermodynamic quantities and the fluctuations using the parameters employed in the experimental implementation. Our results clarify the role of coherence and squeezing in the performance and fluctuations in the quantum Otto engines.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2205.13290

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We consider a finite-time quantum Otto heat engine that consists of two isochoric (thermal-contact) process, where the system is alternatively coupled to a hot squeezed and a cold thermal reservoir, and two unitary driven strokes, where the system is isolated from these two baths and its von Neumann entropy keeps constant. Both quantum inner friction and coherence are generated along the driven stroke and coherence cannot be fully erased after the finite-time hot isochore. Using full counting statistics, we present the probability distribution functions of heat injection and total work per cycle, which are dependent on the time duration along each process. With these, we derive the analytical expressions for the thermodynamic quantities of the two-level heat engine, such as total work, thermodynamic efficiency, entropy production, and work fluctuations, in which effects of coherence, squeezing, inner friction and finite-time heat exchange are included. We then numerically determine the thermodynamic quantities and the fluctuations using the parameters employed in the experimental implementation. Our results clarify the role of coherence and squeezing in the performance and fluctuations in the quantum Otto engines.
Squeezed thermal reservoirs have been proposed as a route to boosting the efficiency and power of quantum heat engines beyond the standard Carnot bound, since squeezing injects an effective negative entropy that can, in principle, be converted into extra work. What remains poorly quantified is the entropy-production cost that driving a working qubit against a squeezed bath actually incurs once finite-time operation and reservoir decoherence are taken into account. We simulate a quantum Otto-cycle heat engine built from a two-level working system coupled alternately to a hot reservoir at temperature 4.2 K, squeezed with squeezing parameter r ranging from 0 to 1.2, and an unsqueezed cold reservoir at 0.8 K, integrating the Lindblad master equation across 42 combinations of squeezing parameter and cycle duration between 0.05 and 2.0 (in units of the inverse qubit gap). At r = 0, mean entropy production per cycle was 0.223 k_B, consistent with standard finite-time Otto-cycle behaviour, but rose to 0.361 k_B at r = 1.2, a 62% increase, even as extractable work per cycle increased by 41%, from 0.184 to 0.259 (in units of the qubit gap). The ratio of work output to entropy production, an effective thermodynamic figure of merit, was therefore not monotonic in squeezing: it peaked at r = 0.6, where work per unit entropy produced reached 0.98, 15% above the unsqueezed value of 0.85, before declining at higher squeezing as entropy production began to outpace the marginal work gain. Power output at the maximum-power cycle duration increased with squeezing across the full range tested, from 0.31 (gap units) at r = 0 to 0.52 at r = 1.2, a 68% gain, but efficiency at maximum power fell from 0.41 to 0.33 over the same range, a trade-off traced out in detail in Table 1. A decomposition of total entropy production attributed 58-71% to hot-bath coupling across all squeezing values, with the squeezed-bath contribution alone rising from undefined at r = 0 to 34% of hot-bath entropy production at r = 1.2, while coherence generated during the unitary strokes accounted for a comparatively stable 12-18% regardless of squeezing strength. These results indicate that reservoir squeezing in quantum heat engines delivers a genuine power and work advantage but at a non-negligible and squeezing-dependent entropy cost, with an intermediate squeezing level offering the best entropy-normalized performance rather than the strongest squeezing tested, a finding directly relevant to the design of squeezed-bath quantum thermal devices operating under realistic decoherence.
We investigate the thermodynamics and fluctuations of a finite-time quantum Otto engine alter- natively driven by a hot-squeezed and a cold thermal reservoir. We show that reservoir squeezing significantly enhances the performance by increasing the thermodynamic efficiency and the power and enables higher stability by decreasing the relative power fluctuations and speeding up the convergence of quantum efficiency to its most probable value. We also demonstrate the counterintuitive result that the efficiency can be larger than the Otto limit in the finite-time operation. Experimental demonstration of this quantum heat engine can be available, based on a single-electron spin pertaining to a trapped 40Ca+^{40}\mathrm{Ca}^{+}40Ca+ ion [D. von Lindenfels et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 080602 (2019)]. We provide a general framework for reliably studying the finite-time nanoengine in finite-time operation which accounts for quantum friction and coherence, deriving important insights into the thermodynamic behaviors beyond the classical thermal machines.
We study how a quantum heat engine based on a single trapped ion performs in finite time. The always-on thermal environment acts like the hot bath, while the motional degree of freedom of the ion plays the role of the effective cold bath. The hot isochoric stroke is implemented via the interaction of the ion with its hot environment, while a projective measurement of the internal state of the ion is performed as an equivalent to the cold isochoric stroke. The expansion and compression strokes are implemented via suitable change in applied magnetic field. We study in detail how the finite duration of each stroke affects the engine performance. We show that partial thermalization can in fact enhance the efficiency of the engine, due to the residual coherence, whereas faster expansion and compression strokes increase the inner friction and therefore reduce the efficiency.
We investigate the thermodynamics and fluctuations of a finite-time quantum Otto engine alternatively driven by a hot squeezed and a cold thermal reservoir. We show that reservoir squeezing significantly enhances the performance by increasing the thermodynamic efficiency and the power, and enables higher stability by decreasing the relative power fluctuations and speeding up the convergence of quantum efficiency to its most probable value. These results are explained by our theoretical analysis that incorporates the effect of reservoir squeezing on the irreversibility associated with quantum friction and coherence due to finite time. An experimental scheme for realizing this quantum heat engine is proposed using a single-electron spin pertaining to a trapped 40Ca+^++ ion. We provide a general framework for reliably studying the finite-time quantum heat engine and derive important insights into the novel thermodynamic behaviors beyond the classical thermal machines.
We consider the finite-time performance of a quantum Otto engine working between a hot squeezed and a cold thermal bath at inverse temperatures ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{h}$ and ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{c}(>{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{h})$ with $({k}_{B}\ensuremath{\equiv}1)\ensuremath{\beta}=1/T$. We derive the analytical expressions for work, efficiency, power, and power fluctuations, in which the squeezing parameter is involved. By optimizing the power output with respect to two frequencies, we derive the efficiency at maximum power as ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{mp}={({\ensuremath{\eta}}_{C}^{\mathrm{gen}})}^{2}/[{\ensuremath{\eta}}_{C}^{\mathrm{gen}}\ensuremath{-}(1\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\eta}}_{C}^{\mathrm{gen}})ln(1\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\eta}}_{C}^{\mathrm{gen}})]$, where the generalized Carnot efficiency ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{C}^{\mathrm{gen}}$ in the high-temperature or small squeezing limit simplifies to an analytic function of squeezing parameter $\ensuremath{\gamma}$: ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{C}^{\mathrm{gen}}=1\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{h}/[{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{c}cosh(2\ensuremath{\gamma})]$. Within the context of irreversible thermodynamics, we demonstrate that the expression of efficiency at maximum power satisfies a general form derived from nonlinear steady state heat engines. We show that, the power fluctuations are considerably increased, although the engine efficiency is enhanced by squeezing.
The working substance fueling a quantum heat engine may contain coherence in its energy basis, depending on the dynamics of the engine cycle. In some models of quantum Otto heat engines, energy coherence has been associated with entropy production and quantum friction. We considered a quantum Otto heat engine operating at finite time. Coherence is generated and the working substance does not reach thermal equilibrium after interacting with the hot heat reservoir, leaving the working substance in a state with residual energy coherence. We observe an interferencelike effect between the residual coherence (after the incomplete thermalization) and the coherence generated in the subsequent finite-time stroke. We introduce analytical expressions highlighting the role of coherence and examine how this dynamical interference effect influences the engine performance. Additionally, in this scenario in which coherence is present along the cycle, we argue that the careful tuning of the cycle parameters may exploit this interference effect and make coherence acts like a dynamical quantum lubricant. To illustrate this, we numerically consider an experimentally feasible example and compare the engine performance to the performance of a similar engine where the residual coherence is completely erased, ruling out the dynamical interference effect.