Nanoscale heat engine exceeds standard efficiency limit
Monday, January 27, 2014 - 09:00
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org) —In 2012, a team of physicists from Germany proposed a scheme for realizing a nanoscale heat engine composed of a single ion. Like a macroscale heat engine, the theoretical nanoscale version can convert heat into mechanical work by taking advantage of the temperature difference between two thermal reservoirs. Because the single-ion heat engine is so small, at the time the physicists noted that it had the potential to tap into the quantum regime and experience quantum effects.