Nonequilibrium free energy and information flow of a double quantum-dot system with Coulomb coupling*

Abstract

We build a double quantum-dot system with Coulomb coupling and aim at studying connections among the entropy production, free energy, and information flow. By utilizing concepts in stochastic thermodynamics and graph theory analysis, Clausius and nonequilibrium free energy inequalities are built to interpret local second law of thermodynamics for subsystems. A fundamental set of cycle fluxes and affinities is identified to decompose two inequalities by using Schnakenberg’s network theory. Results show that the thermodynamic irreversibility has energy-related and information-related contributions. A global cycle associated with the feedback-induced information flow would pump electrons against the bias voltage, which implements a Maxwell demon.

Inverse current induced thermoelectric conversion in a parallel-coupled double quantum dot system

“…Moreover, related applications have been developed in the field of thermal rectifiers/diodes [53][54][55][56][57], thermal transistors [58,59], and thermal logical gates [60]. Coulomb drag [61][62][63], thermometry [64][65][66] and quantum information [67][68][69][70].…”

Stochastic Thermodynamic Cycles of a Mesoscopic Thermoelectric Engine

“…On the other hand, (ii) it has been shown previously that the autonomous steady-state dynamics of such system can be decomposed into stochastic cycles [47,48] without referring to the notion of an effectively timedependent Hamiltonian. We analyze these cycles in detail and show that they are responsible for the performances of the engine while still being fully stochastic, with no underlying oscillatory behavior.…”

“…Note that other categorizations of stochastic engine cycles have been put in place, e.g. in Refs [47,48]…”