Xuereb and his colleagues showed how to build a quantum device where the flow of heat can be controlled externally
As quantum systems become more sophisticated and the age of quantum devices emerges, it becomes increasingly important to address the problem of heat, which can easily spoil the delicate quantum nature of these systems.
Exciting new work by Dr André Xuereb (Department of Physics, University of Malta), Matteo Aquilina (National Aerospace Centre, Malta), and Dr Shabir Barzanjeh (IST Austria) tackles this problem and develops new techniques to allow for the manipulation of the flow of heat in quantum devices. This work shows that it is possible for heat to flow preferentially in one direction over the other. The behaviour of the system depends on an external control, whose properties may be used to change this behaviour at will.
This advance, published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters, may find applications in connecting quantum systems, held close to absolute zero, to the outside world without overwhelming them with heat.
This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 732894 (FET Proactive HOT).