Eur. Phys. J. D (2017) 71: 230
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2017-80101-3

Regular Article

A quantum heat engine based on Tavis-Cummings model

Department of Physics, School of Physics and Nuclear Energy Engineering, Beihang University, Xueyuan Road No. 37, Beijing 100191, P.R. China

^a e-mail: gf1978zhang@buaa.edu.cn

Received: 14 February 2017
Received in final form: 8 April 2017
Published online: 7 September 2017

Abstract

This paper will investigate a four-stroke quantum heat engine based on the Tavis-Cummings model. The cycle of the heat engine is similar to the Otto cycle in classical thermodynamics. The relationship between output power as well as cycle efficiency and external physical system parameters are given. Under this condition, the entanglement behavior of the system will be studied. The system can show considerable entanglement by strictly controlling relevant parameters. Unlike common two-level quantum heat engines, efficiency is a function of temperature, showing interesting and unexpected phenomena. Several ways to adjust engine properties by external parameters are proposed, with which the output power and efficiency can be optimized. The heat engine model exhibits high efficiency and output power with the participation of a small number of photons, and decay rapidly as the number of photons increases in entangled area but shows interesting behaviors in non-entangled area of photon numbers.