Single-ion quantum Otto engine with always-on bath interaction

Abstract

We demonstrate how the reciprocating heat cycle of a quantum Otto engine (QOE) can be implemented using a single ion and an always-on thermal environment. The internal degree of freedom of the ion is chosen as the working fluid, while the motional degree of freedom can be used as the cold bath. We show, that by adiabatically changing the local magnetic field, the work efficiency can be asymptotically made unity. We propose a projective measurement of the internal state of the ion that mimics the release of heat from the working fluid during the engine cycle. In our proposal, the coupling to the hot and the cold baths need not be switched off and on in an alternate fashion during the engine cycle, unlike other existing proposals of QOE. This renders the proposal experimentally feasible using the available tapped-ion engineering technology.