Thermodynamics of optical Bloch equations
Optical Bloch equations (OBE) describe the coherent exchange of energy between a quantum bit (qubit) and a quasi-resonant driving field in the presence of a thermal bath. Despite it being an ubiquitous process in quantum technologies, a sound thermodynamic analysis is still missing. We hereby provid...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2020-01-01
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| Series: | New Journal of Physics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abbd6e |
| _version_ | 1797750353500831744 |
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| author | Cyril Elouard David Herrera-Martí Massimiliano Esposito Alexia Auffèves |
| author_facet | Cyril Elouard David Herrera-Martí Massimiliano Esposito Alexia Auffèves |
| author_sort | Cyril Elouard |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Optical Bloch equations (OBE) describe the coherent exchange of energy between a quantum bit (qubit) and a quasi-resonant driving field in the presence of a thermal bath. Despite it being an ubiquitous process in quantum technologies, a sound thermodynamic analysis is still missing. We hereby provide such an analysis, by deriving the relevant framework from first principles. We start from a complete microscopic description of the qubit-bath system where definitions of heat, work and entropy production are unambiguous. We trace out the bath and coarse-grain the resulting expressions in time, using a methodology similar to the derivation of the dynamical master equation, to derive closed expressions for the first and second law in terms of system properties. Long coarse graining times yield the Floquet Master equation and its already known thermodynamic description. Short coarse-graining times yield instead the OBE and a novel thermodynamic framework which explicitly depends on quantum coherences in the qubit’s energy basis which produce quantum signatures in the heat and entropy production flows. This allows us to characterize a genuinely quantum non-equilibrium situation, where the coherences created by the driving field are continuously erased by the bath. Our findings can be readily extended to larger open quantum systems. They carry the seeds for future thermodynamic analyses of quantum gates and the design of quantum engines in the strong coherent driving regime. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:31:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-78fa2b82ad394d92b720f346750b7ed7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1367-2630 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:31:33Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | New Journal of Physics |
| spelling | doaj.art-78fa2b82ad394d92b720f346750b7ed72023-08-08T15:28:10ZengIOP PublishingNew Journal of Physics1367-26302020-01-01221010303910.1088/1367-2630/abbd6eThermodynamics of optical Bloch equationsCyril Elouard0David Herrera-Martí1Massimiliano Esposito2Alexia Auffèves3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester , Rochester, NY 14627, United States of AmericaAtos Centre for Excellence in Performance Programming , 1 rue de Provence, 38130 Echirolles, FranceComplex Systems and Statistical Mechanics, Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg , L-1511 Luxembourg, LuxembourgCNRS and Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut Néel , F-38042 Grenoble, FranceOptical Bloch equations (OBE) describe the coherent exchange of energy between a quantum bit (qubit) and a quasi-resonant driving field in the presence of a thermal bath. Despite it being an ubiquitous process in quantum technologies, a sound thermodynamic analysis is still missing. We hereby provide such an analysis, by deriving the relevant framework from first principles. We start from a complete microscopic description of the qubit-bath system where definitions of heat, work and entropy production are unambiguous. We trace out the bath and coarse-grain the resulting expressions in time, using a methodology similar to the derivation of the dynamical master equation, to derive closed expressions for the first and second law in terms of system properties. Long coarse graining times yield the Floquet Master equation and its already known thermodynamic description. Short coarse-graining times yield instead the OBE and a novel thermodynamic framework which explicitly depends on quantum coherences in the qubit’s energy basis which produce quantum signatures in the heat and entropy production flows. This allows us to characterize a genuinely quantum non-equilibrium situation, where the coherences created by the driving field are continuously erased by the bath. Our findings can be readily extended to larger open quantum systems. They carry the seeds for future thermodynamic analyses of quantum gates and the design of quantum engines in the strong coherent driving regime.https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abbd6equantum thermodynamicsRabi oscillationquantum coherencequantum gateFloquet master equationquantum optics |
| spellingShingle | Cyril Elouard David Herrera-Martí Massimiliano Esposito Alexia Auffèves Thermodynamics of optical Bloch equations New Journal of Physics quantum thermodynamics Rabi oscillation quantum coherence quantum gate Floquet master equation quantum optics |
| title | Thermodynamics of optical Bloch equations |
| title_full | Thermodynamics of optical Bloch equations |
| title_fullStr | Thermodynamics of optical Bloch equations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Thermodynamics of optical Bloch equations |
| title_short | Thermodynamics of optical Bloch equations |
| title_sort | thermodynamics of optical bloch equations |
| topic | quantum thermodynamics Rabi oscillation quantum coherence quantum gate Floquet master equation quantum optics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abbd6e |
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