Researchers at Aalto University have built the first cyclic quantum heat engine inside a superconducting circuit. The device uses a qubit, the basic unit of quantum information, as its working substance and repeatedly drives it through heating, cooling, and energy conversion.
The study, led by Academy Professor Mikko Möttönen, was published in Nature Communications.
The result brings a familiar technology into an unfamiliar world. Conventional heat engines power vehicles and electricity plants by moving energy between hot and cold environments. The Aalto device follows the same basic principle, but it operates on a microscopic scale where quantum mechanics determines how energy behaves.
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