Exploring Metallic-Insulating Transition and Thermodynamic Applications of Fibonacci Quasicrystals

TL;DR

This paper investigates the phase transition in Fibonacci quasicrystals, revealing a metallic-insulating transition and exploring their potential for thermodynamic quantum devices like heat engines and heaters.

Contribution

It uncovers the extended-critical transition as a thermodynamic phase transition and demonstrates the use of Fibonacci quasicrystals in quantum heat cycle applications.

Findings

The extended-critical transition resembles a metallic-insulating transition.

Wigner distributions differ between extended and critical states.

Fibonacci quasicrystals can serve as working media in quantum heat engines and heaters.

Abstract

Extended and critical states are two common phenomena in Fibonacci quasicrystals. In this paper, we first reveal the difference between the extended phase and the critical phase in the extended-critical Fibonacci quasicrystal from the perspectives of quantum transport and Wigner distribution. The transport conductance indicates that the extended-critical transition resembles a metallic-insulating transition. Moreover, the Wigner distributions show that the Wigner distribution of the extended wave function is localized in the momentum direction of the phase space, while that of the critical wave function is sub-extended in the momentum direction of the phase space. Based on the results of entanglement entropy, the extended-critical transition is a thermodynamic phase transition because it is accompanied by decreasing entropy. We engineer a quantum heat cycle engine with the extended-critical quasicrystal as the working medium, and find that there are rich working modes in the engine, such as quantum accelerator, quantum heater and quantum heat engine. Importantly, the extended quasicrystals are more conducive to the realization of quantum heat engines, while the critical quasicrystals are more conducive to the realization of quantum heaters. Our work is an important step toward exploring the rich thermodynamic applications of Fibonacci quasicrystals.