Multilayer Graphene as an Endoreversible Otto Engine

TL;DR

This paper investigates multilayer graphene as a working medium in a finite-time endoreversible Otto cycle, revealing that the number of layers influences efficiency and can surpass classical cycle efficiencies.

Contribution

It introduces the use of multilayer graphene in quantum thermodynamic cycles and establishes a relationship between layer number and engine efficiency.

Findings

Efficiency depends on the number of graphene layers.

Efficiency at maximum power can exceed classical limits.

Multilayer structure significantly impacts thermodynamic performance.

Abstract

Graphene is perhaps the most prominent "Dirac material," a class of systems whose electronic structure gives rise to charge carriers that behave as relativistic fermions. In multilayer graphene several crystal sheets are stacked such that the honeycomb lattice of each layer is displaced along one of the lattice edges. When subject to an external magnetic field, the scaling of the multilayer energy spectrum with the magnetic field, and thus the system's thermodynamic behavior, depends strongly on the number of layers. With this in mind, we examine the performance of a finite-time endoreversible Otto cycle with multilayer graphene as its working medium. We show that there exists a simple relationship between the engine efficiency and the number of layers, and that the efficiency at maximum power can exceed that of a classical endoreversible Otto cycle.