2015/04/11 by Ying Dong, Keye Zhang, Francesco Bariani +1
Physics and Astronomy · #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.92.033854
published as Phys. Rev. A 92, 033854 (2015) · 9 pages, 6 figures
arxiv created 2015/04/11 · arxiv updated 2015/10/07
We analyze theoretically the measurement of the mean output work and its fluctuations in a recently proposed optomechanical quantum heat engine [K. Zhang \it et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. \bf112, 150602 (2014)]. After showing that this work can be evaluated by a continuous measurements of the intracavity photon number we discuss both dispersive and absorptive measurement schemes and analyze their back-action effects on the efficiency of the engine. Both measurements are found to reduce the efficiency of the engine, but their back-action is both qualitatively and quantitatively different. For dispersive measurements the efficiency decreases as a result of the mixing of photonic and phononic excitations, while for absorptive measurements, its reduction results from photon losses due to the interaction with the quantum probe.