Rectification of thermal fluctuations in a chaotic cavity heat engine

Björn Sothmann, Rafael Sánchez, Andrew N. Jordan, and Markus Büttiker
Phys. Rev. B 85, 205301 – Published 1 May 2012

Abstract

We investigate the rectification of thermal fluctuations in a mesoscopic on-chip heat engine. The engine consists of a hot chaotic cavity capacitively coupled to a cold cavity which rectifies the excess noise and generates a directed current. The fluctuation-induced directed current depends on the energy asymmetry of the transmissions of the contacts of the cold cavity to the leads and is proportional to the temperature difference. We discuss the channel dependence of the maximal power output of the heat engine and its efficiency.

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  • Received 18 January 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.85.205301

©2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Björn Sothmann1, Rafael Sánchez2, Andrew N. Jordan3, and Markus Büttiker1

  • 1Département de Physique Théorique, Université de Genève, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland
  • 2Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC), Cantoblanco, E-28049 Madrid, Spain
  • 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA

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Issue

Vol. 85, Iss. 20 — 15 May 2012

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