Heat engines are essential devices in modern industry,converting heat energy into useful mechanical work via their working substances.Here we experimentally simulate the conventional heat engine by employing the vibra...Heat engines are essential devices in modern industry,converting heat energy into useful mechanical work via their working substances.Here we experimentally simulate the conventional heat engine by employing the vibra-tional mode of a single trapped ion as the working substance.In contrast to simply employing the ion in thermal motion,we consider coherently stimulating the ion’s vibrational motion as the phonon laser,which helps acquire clearer results by effectively suppressing the thermal fluctuation.As such,we demonstrate in an exact and high signal-to-noise way the standard steps of both the Otto and Carnot cycles in a single ion,and compare their maxi-mum efficiencies by monitoring the amplitude and frequency of the vibration.Our work witnesses an interesting single-atom thermal engine using coherently controlled phonons.It would be the smallest platform for simulating or demonstrating classical thermodynamic laws and phenomena at a single ion scale via optical manipulation techniques for phonon lasers.展开更多
基金supported by Special Project for Research and Devel-opment in Key Areas of Guangdong Province(2020B0303300001)by National Natural Science Foundation of China(U21A20434,12074390,12074346,11835011,11734018)+3 种基金by Key Lab of Guangzhou for Quan-tum Precision Measurement(202201000010)by Guangzhou Funding for Science and Technology(202201011727)by Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China(2022MT10881)by Nansha Senior Leading Talent Team Technology Project(2021CXTD02).
文摘Heat engines are essential devices in modern industry,converting heat energy into useful mechanical work via their working substances.Here we experimentally simulate the conventional heat engine by employing the vibra-tional mode of a single trapped ion as the working substance.In contrast to simply employing the ion in thermal motion,we consider coherently stimulating the ion’s vibrational motion as the phonon laser,which helps acquire clearer results by effectively suppressing the thermal fluctuation.As such,we demonstrate in an exact and high signal-to-noise way the standard steps of both the Otto and Carnot cycles in a single ion,and compare their maxi-mum efficiencies by monitoring the amplitude and frequency of the vibration.Our work witnesses an interesting single-atom thermal engine using coherently controlled phonons.It would be the smallest platform for simulating or demonstrating classical thermodynamic laws and phenomena at a single ion scale via optical manipulation techniques for phonon lasers.
