Coupled-Double-Quantum-Dot Environmental Information Engines: A Numerical Analysis

TL;DR

This paper numerically analyzes a coupled double quantum dot information engine, revealing how device design and temperature differences influence efficiency and power output, with implications for practical energy conversion devices.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical model for a coupled double quantum dot information engine and identifies key design principles affecting efficiency and power generation.

Findings

Higher energy levels in the detector-side reservoir increase work production.

Efficiency peaks at specific Coulomb-interaction strengths.

Efficiency is mainly influenced by tunneling rate asymmetries and temperature differences.

Abstract

We conduct numerical simulations for an autonomous information engine comprising a set of coupled double quantum dots using a simple model. The steady-state entropy production rate in each component, heat and electron transfer rates are calculated via the probability distribution of the four electronic states from the master transition-rate equations. We define an information-engine efficiency based on the entropy change of the reservoir, implicating power generators that employ the environmental order as a new energy resource. We acquire device-design principles, toward the realization of corresponding practical energy converters, including that (1) higher energy levels of the detector-side reservoir than those of the detector dot provide significantly higher work production rates by faster states' circulation, (2) the efficiency is strongly dependent on the relative temperatures of the detector and system sides and becomes high in a particular Coulomb-interaction strength region between the quantum dots, and (3) the efficiency depends little on the system dot's energy level relative to its reservoir but largely on the antisymmetric relative amplitudes of the electronic tunneling rates.