Enhancement of quantum heat engine by encircling a Liouvillian exceptional point

Abstract

Quantum heat engines are expected to outperform the classical counterparts due to quantum coherences involved. Here we experimentally execute a single-ion quantum heat engine and demonstrate, for the first time, the dynamics and the enhanced performance of the heat engine originating from the Liouvillian exceptional points (LEPs). In addition to the topological effects related to LEPs, we focus on thermodynamic effects, which can be understood by the Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg process under decoherence. We witness a positive net work from the quantum heat engine if the heat engine cycle dynamically encircles an LEP. Further investigation reveals that, a larger net work is done when the system is operated closer to the LEP. We attribute the enhanced performance of the quantum heat engine to the LZS process, enabled by the eigenenergy landscape in the vicinity of the LEP, and the EP-induced topological transition. Therefore, our results open new possibilities to towards LEP-enabled control of quantum heat engines and of thermodynamic processes in open quantum systems.

7 pages, 3 figures, Supplementary materials can be found in the Download source

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• The effect of thermal photons on exceptional points in coupled resonators
• Liouvillian exceptional points of an open driven two-level system
• Unbalanced gain and loss in a quantum photonic system
• Entanglement signatures for quantum synchronization with single-ion phonon laser