Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 6, 2026

Silicon Metal-oxide-semiconductor Quantum Dots for Single-electron Pumping
Published on: June 3, 2015
Quantum thermal machines driven by vacuum forces
Hugo Terças1,2, Sofia Ribeiro1, Marco Pezzutto3,4
1Instituto de Telecomunicações, Lisbon, Portugal.
Abstract:
We propose a quantum thermal machine composed of two nanomechanical resonators (two membranes suspended over a trench in a substrate) placed a few μm from each other. The quantum thermodynamical cycle is powered by the Casimir interaction between the resonators and the working fluid is the polariton resulting from the mixture of the flexural (out-of-plane) vibrations. With the help of piezoelectric cells, we select and sweep the polariton frequency cyclically. We calculate the performance of the proposed quantum thermal machines and show that high efficiencies are achieved thanks to (i) the strong coupling between the resonators and (ii) the large difference between the membrane stiffnesses. Our findings can be of particular importance for applications in nanomechanical technologies where a sensitive control of temperature is needed.
Related Concept Videos
The Quantum-Mechanical Model of an Atom
Mechanical Efficiency of Real Machines
However, in reality, no machine can be truly ideal, and all of them experience some...
Statements of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Thermodynamic Systems
Consider an example of tea boiling in a kettle. The...
The Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics

