An optomechanical heat engine with feedback-controlled in-loop light

Abstract

The dissipative properties of an optical cavity can be effectively controlled by placing it in a feedback loop where the light at the cavity output is detected and the corresponding signal is used to modulate the amplitude of a laser field which drives the cavity itself. Here we show that this effect can be exploited to improve the performance of an optomechanical heat engine which makes use of polariton excitations as working fluid. In particular we demonstrate that, by employing a positive feedback close to the instability threshold, it is possible to operate this engine also under parameters regimes which are not usable without feedback, and which may significantly ease the practical implementation of this device.

Nonequilibrium Many-Body Quantum Engine Driven by Time-Translation Symmetry Breaking

“…During the last years, much progress has been made in the design of quantum engines that operate far from equilibrium and use non-thermal sources of energy [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. The natural next step is to explore how mechanical work can be generated in such non-equilibrium settings, how collective effects, like phase transitions, affect the work output and whether they could enable novel modes of operation.…”

Hydrodynamic interpretation of generic squeezed coherent states: A kinetic theory

“…Even though this can be seen somewhat restrictive, it is still relevant for certain application areas within the fields of quantum thermodynamics and quantum engines. Specifically, our results might find some area of use within the quantum optomechanical problems as in [100][101][102][103][104][105] where stability and efficiency issues are open problems for time dependent systems.…”

Quantum thermodynamic devices: from theoretical proposals to experimental reality

“…where the lower classical thermal energy k B T a has been replaced by the ground state energy of a quantum oscillator of frequency −∆ f . The quantum optomechanical heat engine proposed by Zhang, Bariani and Meystre has inspired several other designs [236][237][238] , work extraction optimization 239 and possible applications in phonon cooling 240 . Other applications include optomechanical engines based on a cascade setup 236 and the implementation of an engine based on feedback control 237,241 .…”