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Double quantum-dot engine fueled by entanglement between electron spins

Josefsson, Martin LU orcid and Leijnse, Martin LU (2020) In Physical Review B 101(8).
Abstract

The laws of thermodynamics allow work extraction from a single heat bath provided that the entropy decrease of the bath is compensated for by another part of the system. We propose a thermodynamic quantum engine that exploits this principle and consists of two electrons on a double quantum dot (QD). The engine is fueled by providing it with singlet spin states, where the electron spins on different QDs are maximally entangled, and its operation involves only changing the tunnel coupling between the QDs. Work can be extracted since the entropy of an entangled singlet is lower than that of a thermal (mixed) state, although they look identical when measuring on a single QD. We show that the engine is an optimal thermodynamic engine in the... (More)

The laws of thermodynamics allow work extraction from a single heat bath provided that the entropy decrease of the bath is compensated for by another part of the system. We propose a thermodynamic quantum engine that exploits this principle and consists of two electrons on a double quantum dot (QD). The engine is fueled by providing it with singlet spin states, where the electron spins on different QDs are maximally entangled, and its operation involves only changing the tunnel coupling between the QDs. Work can be extracted since the entropy of an entangled singlet is lower than that of a thermal (mixed) state, although they look identical when measuring on a single QD. We show that the engine is an optimal thermodynamic engine in the long-time limit. In addition, we include a microscopic description of the bath and analyze the engine's finite-time performance using experimentally relevant parameters.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Physical Review B
volume
101
issue
8
article number
081408
publisher
American Physical Society
external identifiers
  • scopus:85079784076
ISSN
2469-9950
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.101.081408
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c4521710-20f1-4f94-8df9-7911c53951ee
date added to LUP
2020-03-11 14:48:54
date last changed
2023-11-20 00:54:33
@article{c4521710-20f1-4f94-8df9-7911c53951ee,
  abstract     = {{<p>The laws of thermodynamics allow work extraction from a single heat bath provided that the entropy decrease of the bath is compensated for by another part of the system. We propose a thermodynamic quantum engine that exploits this principle and consists of two electrons on a double quantum dot (QD). The engine is fueled by providing it with singlet spin states, where the electron spins on different QDs are maximally entangled, and its operation involves only changing the tunnel coupling between the QDs. Work can be extracted since the entropy of an entangled singlet is lower than that of a thermal (mixed) state, although they look identical when measuring on a single QD. We show that the engine is an optimal thermodynamic engine in the long-time limit. In addition, we include a microscopic description of the bath and analyze the engine's finite-time performance using experimentally relevant parameters.</p>}},
  author       = {{Josefsson, Martin and Leijnse, Martin}},
  issn         = {{2469-9950}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  number       = {{8}},
  publisher    = {{American Physical Society}},
  series       = {{Physical Review B}},
  title        = {{Double quantum-dot engine fueled by entanglement between electron spins}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.101.081408}},
  doi          = {{10.1103/PhysRevB.101.081408}},
  volume       = {{101}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}