Work

Experimental realization of a Szilard engine with a single electron

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: Significance A Maxwell demon makes use of information to convert thermal energy of a reservoir into work. A quantitative example is a thought experiment known as a Szilard engine, which uses one bit of information about the position of a thermalized molecule in a box to extract k B T ln 2 of work. The second law of thermodynamics remains valid because, according to Landauer principle, erasure of the information dissipates at least the same amount of heat. Here, we present an experimental realization of a Maxwell demon similar to a Szilard engine, in the form of a single electron box. We provide, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of extracting nearly k B T ln 2 of work for one bit of information.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1406966111

Authors: Jonne V. Koski, Ville F. Maisi, Jukka P. Pekola, Dmitri V. Averin

Institutions: Aalto University, National metrology institute VTT MIKES, ETH Zurich, Stony Brook University

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics

Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, European Commission, Aalto-Yliopisto

Awards: Information, Fluctuations, and Energy Control in Small Systems, Collaborative Research: Transmission of Quantum Information in Circuits of Superconducting Qubits