2014/08/20 by Andreas Dechant, Nikolai Kiesel, Eric Lutz · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.stat-mech #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.114.183602
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 183602 (2015) · 5 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2014/08/20 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13
We propose and theoretically investigate a nanomechanical heat engine. We show how a levitated nanoparticle in a harmonic optical trap inside an optical cavity can be used to realize a Stirling cycle in the underdamped regime. The all-optical approach enables fast and exible control of all the thermodynamical parameters and the effcient optimization of the performance of the engine. We develop a systematic optimization procedure to determine optimal driving protocols. We further perform numerical simulations with realistic parameters and evaluate the maximum power and the corresponding effciency.