Alladi Ramakrishnan Hall

Work extraction in quantum optical setups

Avijit Misra

Weizmann Institute, Israel

In this talk, I will first give a brief overview of quantum thermodynamics
and work extraction. Continuing in this direction, the rapport of work and
information in the context of measurement based heat engines will be
discussed. I will then discuss work extraction by measurement (homodyne) in
quantum optical setups, specifically, about a converter of heat to work
wherein the input consists of a single oscillator mode. One of the main
drawbacks of work extraction by measurement is it inevitably requires
measurement-outcome dependent control steps. To circumvent this, we propose
an autonomous, coherent work extraction scheme from a few oscillator modes
exploiting non-linear interaction. Our results may become a basis of a
practical strategy of converting thermal noise to useful work in optical
setups, as well as in their optomechanical and photovoltaic counterparts.
Finally, I will briefly talk about a few future research directions based
on atom-photon interaction.



References: Phys. Rev. Lett. 127 (4), 040602 (2021); Phys. Rev. E 106 (5),
054131 (2022); Science Advances 9 (1), eadf1070 (2023)