| Issue |
EPL
Volume 99, Number 5, September 2012
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 50005 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | General | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/99/50005 | |
| Published online | 14 September 2012 | |
Quantum heat engines: A thermodynamic analysis of power and efficiency
1 Department of inorganic and physical chemistry, Indian Institute of Science - Bangalore, 560012, India
2 Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Israel Institute of Technology - Haifa 32000, Israel
3 Department of chemistry, University of California - Irvine, CA, USA
(a) uharbola@ipc.iisc.ernet.in
Received: 2 June 2012
Accepted: 9 August 2012
We show that the operation and the output power of a quantum heat engine that converts incoherent thermal energy into coherent cavity photons can be optimized by manipulating quantum coherences. The gain or loss in the efficiency at maximum power depends on the details of the output power optimization. Quantum effects tend to enhance the output power and the efficiency as the photon occupation in the cavity is decreased.
PACS: 05.70.Ln – Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics / 42.50.Ar – Photon statistics and coherence theory / 88.40.hj – Efficiency and performance of solar cells
© EPLA, 2012
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