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arXiv:2207.00867

Finite-time thermodynamic process of a two-level quantum heat engine

Yigermal Bassie, Tibebe Birhanu, Yoseph Abebe, Admasu Abawari

Published Jul 2, 2022• 1 citation
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Abstract

In this paper, we consider a model of two-level quantum heat engine to investigate the explicit analytic expression for the thermodynamics quantities in different condition under the finite-time operation. In this engine, the working substance is composed of a spin-half particles immersed in a magnetic field. The finite-time thermodynamic processes consisting of two quantum adiabatic and two quantum isothermal processes. This processes working between two heat reservoirs with an inverse temperatures $β_{1}$ and $β_{2}$ ($<β_{1}$). In this processes, we obtain the work, heat, power and efficiency at maximum power output of the model. Our result of the efficiency at maximum power agree with the universal value in the first order of Carnot efficiency.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2207.00867

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In a quantum Stirling heat engine, the heat exchanged with two thermal baths is partly utilized for performing work by redistributing the energy levels of the working substance. We analyze the thermodynamics of a quantum Stirling engine operating in finite time. We develop a model in which a time-dependent potential barrier changes the energy-level structure of the working substance. The process takes place under a constant interaction with the thermal bath. We further show that in the limit of slow operation of the cycle and low temperature, the efficiency of such an engine approaches Carnot efficiency. We also show that the maximum output power, for the strokes that affect the energy levels, is obtained at an intermediate operating speed, demonstrating the importance of a finite-time analysis.
We investigate the finite-power performance of quantum heat engines working in the linear response regime where the temperature gradient is small. The engine cycles with working substances of ideal harmonic systems consist of two heat transfer and two adiabatic processes, such as the Carnot cycle, Otto cycle, and Brayton cycle. By analyzing the optimal protocol under maximum power we derive the explicitly analytic expression for the irreversible entropy production, which becomes the low dissipation form in the long duration limit. Assuming the engine to be endoreversible, we derive the universal expression for the efficiency at maximum power, which agrees well with that obtained from the phenomenological heat transfer laws holding in the classical thermodynamics. Through appropriate identification of the thermodynamic fluxes and forces that a linear relation connects, we find that the quantum engines under consideration are tightly coupled, and the universality of efficiency at maximum power is confirmed at the linear order in the temperature gradient.
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We generalize the quantum heat engine (QHE) model which was first proposed by Bender et al. [J. Phys. A 33, 4427 (2000)] to the case in which an ideal Fermi gas with an arbitrary number N of particles in a box trap is used as the working substance. Besides two quantum adiabatic processes, the engine model contains two isoenergetic processes, during which the particles are coupled to energy baths at a high constant energy E(h) and a low constant energy E(c), respectively. Directly employing the finite-time thermodynamics, we find that the power output is enhanced by increasing particle number N (or decreasing minimum trap size L(A)) for given L(A) (or N), without reduction in the efficiency. By use of global optimization, the efficiency at possible maximum power output (EPMP) is found to be universal and independent of any parameter contained in the engine model. For an engine model with any particle-number N, the efficiency at maximum power output (EMP) can be determined under the condition that it should be closest to the EPMP. Moreover, we extend the heat engine to a more general multilevel engine model with an arbitrary 1D power-law potential. Comparison between our engine model and the Carnot cycle shows that, under the same conditions, the efficiency η = 1 - E(c)/E(h) of the engine cycle is bounded from above the Carnot value η(c) =1 - T(c)/T(h).