Cavaliere Fabio, Razzoli Luca, Carrega Matteo, Benenti Giuliano, Sassetti Maura
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy.
CNR-SPIN, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy.
iScience. 2023 Feb 18;26(3):106235. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106235. eCollection 2023 Mar 17.
Quantum thermal machines can perform useful tasks, such as delivering power, cooling, or heating. In this work, we consider hybrid thermal machines, that can execute more than one task simultaneously. We characterize and find optimal working conditions for a three-terminal quantum thermal machine, where the working medium is a quantum harmonic oscillator, coupled to three heat baths, with two of the couplings driven periodically in time. We show that it is possible to operate the thermal machine efficiently, in both pure and hybrid modes, and to switch between different operational modes simply by changing the driving frequency. Moreover, the proposed setup can also be used as a high-performance transistor, in terms of output-to-input signal and differential gain. Owing to its versatility and tunability, our model may be of interest for engineering thermodynamic tasks and for thermal management in quantum technologies.
量子热机可以执行有用的任务，比如供电、制冷或制热。在这项工作中，我们考虑了能够同时执行多个任务的混合热机。我们对一种三端量子热机进行了表征并找到了其最佳工作条件，该热机的工作介质是一个量子谐振子，与三个热库耦合，其中两个耦合随时间作周期性驱动。我们表明，无论是在纯模式还是混合模式下，都能够高效地运行该热机，并且只需通过改变驱动频率就能在不同运行模式之间切换。此外，就输出与输入信号以及差分增益而言，所提出的装置还可以用作高性能晶体管。由于其通用性和可调性，我们的模型可能在工程热力学任务以及量子技术中的热管理方面具有重要意义。
