Quantum Confinement and Negative Heat Capacity
arXiv:1305.2014 · doi:10.1209/0295-5075/104/16004
Abstract
Thermodynamics dictates that the specific heat of a system is strictly non-negative. However, in finite classical systems there are well known theoretical and experimental cases where this rule is violated, in particular finite atomic clusters. Here, we show for the first time that negative heat capacity can also occur in finite quantum systems. The physical scenario on which this effect might be experimentally observed is discussed. Observing such an effect might lead to the design of new light harvesting nano devices, in particular a solar nano refrigerator.
8 pages, 5 figures
References in corpus (9)
- Energy Band Gap Engineering of Graphene Nanoribbons
- Dependence of band structures on stacking and field in layered graphene
- Finite quantum dissipation: the challenge of obtaining specific heat
- Thermodynamics and Fluctuation Theorems for a Strongly Coupled Open Quantum System: An Exactly Solvable Case
- Thermodynamic anomalies in open quantum systems: Strong coupling effects in the isotropic XY model
- Quantum Hertz entropy increase in a quenched spin chain
- Near-threshold properties of the electronic density of layered quantum-dots
- On the origin of power-laws in equilibrium
- Quantum control of a model qubit based on a multi-layered quantum dot