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Analog of a Quantum Heat Engine Using a Single-Spin Qubit
K Ono1,2, S N Shevchenko3,4,5, T Mori6
1Advanced Device Laboratory, RIKEN, Wako-shi, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
Abstract:
A quantum two-level system with periodically modulated energy splitting could provide a minimal universal quantum heat machine. We present the experimental realization and the theoretical description of such a two-level system as an impurity electron spin in a silicon tunnel field-effect transistor. In the incoherent regime, the system can behave analogously to either an Otto heat engine or a refrigerator. The coherent regime could be described as a superposition of those two regimes, producing specific interference fringes in the observed source-drain current.
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