Two-level masers as heat-to-work converters

Arnab Ghosh; David Gelbwaser-Klimovsky; Wolfgang Niedenzu; Alexander I Lvovsky; Igor Mazets; Marlan O Scully; Gershon Kurizki

doi:10.1073/pnas.1805354115

Two-level masers as heat-to-work converters

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Oct 2;115(40):9941-9944. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1805354115. Epub 2018 Sep 18.

Authors

Arnab Ghosh^{1

2}, David Gelbwaser-Klimovsky³, Wolfgang Niedenzu^{2

4}, Alexander I Lvovsky^{5

6

7

8}, Igor Mazets^{9

10}, Marlan O Scully^{11

12

13}, Gershon Kurizki²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Chemical and Biological Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
³ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
⁴ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
⁵ Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada.
⁶ International Center for Quantum Optics and Quantum Technologies (Russian Quantum Center), Skolkovo, Moscow 143025, Russia.
⁷ Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology, Chengdu, Sichuan 610054, China.
⁸ Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom.
⁹ Atominstitut, Technische Universität Wien, 1020 Vienna, Austria.
¹⁰ Wolfgang Pauli Institute, Universität Wien, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
¹¹ Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843; scully@tamu.edu.
¹² Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544.
¹³ Department of Physics, Baylor University, Waco, TX, 76798.

Abstract

Heat engines, which cyclically transform heat into work, are ubiquitous in technology. Lasers and masers may be viewed as heat engines that rely on population inversion or coherence in the active medium. Here we put forward an unconventional paradigm of a remarkably simple and robust electromagnetic heat-powered engine that bears basic differences to any known maser or laser: The proposed device makes use of only one Raman transition and does not rely on population inversion or coherence in its two-level working medium. Nor does it require any coherent driving. The engine can be powered by the ambient temperature difference between the sky and the ground surface. Its autonomous character and "free" power source make this engine conceptually and technologically enticing.

Keywords: heat; laser; maser.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.