2016/11/23 by Andrea Hofmann, Ville F. Maisi, Julien Basset +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Dissipation #Particle (ecology) #Particle system #Quantum #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum dot #Quantum fluctuation #Quantum system #Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices #Work (physics) #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/pssb.201600546
published as Physica Status Solidi B 254, 1600546 (2017)
arxiv created 2016/11/23 · openalex created_date 2016/11/30 · openalex publication_date 2016/12/05 · arxiv updated 2017/03/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
While thermodynamics is a useful tool to describe the driving of large systems close to equilibrium, fluctuations dominate the distribution of heat and work in small systems and far from equilibrium. We study the heat generated by driving a small system and change the drive parameters to analyze the transition from a drive leaving the system close to equilibrium to driving it far from equilibrium. Our system is a quantum dot in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure hosting a two‐dimensional electron gas. The dot is tunnel‐coupled to one part of the two‐dimensional electron gas acting as a heat and particle reservoir. We use standard rate equations to model the driven dot–reservoir system and find excellent agreement with the experiment. Additionally, we quantify the fluctuations by experimentally testing the theoretical concept of the arrow of time, predicting our ability to distinguish whether a process goes in the forward or backward drive direction.