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On-Chip Maxwell’s Demon as an Information-Powered Refrigerator

J. V. Koski, A. Kutvonen, I. M. Khaymovich, T. Ala-Nissila, and J. P. Pekola
Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 260602 – Published 30 December 2015
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Abstract

We present an experimental realization of an autonomous Maxwell’s demon, which extracts microscopic information from a system and reduces its entropy by applying feedback. It is based on two capacitively coupled single-electron devices, both integrated on the same electronic circuit. This setup allows a detailed analysis of the thermodynamics of both the demon and the system as well as their mutual information exchange. The operation of the demon is directly observed as a temperature drop in the system. We also observe a simultaneous temperature rise in the demon arising from the thermodynamic cost of generating the mutual information.

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  • Received 1 October 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.260602

© 2015 American Physical Society

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Exorcising Maxwell’s Demon

Published 30 December 2015

A pair of connected single-electron devices functions as a Maxwell’s demon that operates without external control.

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Authors & Affiliations

J. V. Koski1, A. Kutvonen2, I. M. Khaymovich1,3, T. Ala-Nissila2,4, and J. P. Pekola1

  • 1Low Temperature Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University School of Science, P.O. Box 13500, FI-00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland
  • 2COMP Center of Excellence, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University School of Science, P.O. Box 11000, FI-00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland
  • 3Institute for Physics of Microstructures, Russian Academy of Sciences, 603950 Nizhni Novgorod, GSP-105, Russia
  • 4Department of Physics, Brown University, Providence Rhode Island 02912-1843, USA

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Issue

Vol. 115, Iss. 26 — 31 December 2015

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