Thermodynamics and fluctuations in finite-time quantum heat engines under reservoir squeezing

Abstract

We investigate the thermodynamics and fluctuations of a finite-time quantum Otto engine alter- natively driven by a hot-squeezed and a cold thermal reservoir. We show that reservoir squeezing significantly enhances the performance by increasing the thermodynamic efficiency and the power and enables higher stability by decreasing the relative power fluctuations and speeding up the convergence of quantum efficiency to its most probable value. We also demonstrate the counterintuitive result that the efficiency can be larger than the Otto limit in the finite-time operation. Experimental demonstration of this quantum heat engine can be available, based on a single-electron spin pertaining to a trapped ^{40}Ca^{+} ion [D. von Lindenfels et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 080602 (2019)0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.123.080602]. We provide a general framework for reliably studying the finite-time nanoengine in finite-time operation which accounts for quantum friction and coherence, deriving important insights into the thermodynamic behaviors beyond the classical thermal machines.