QFluctTrans · Thermodynamics of Quantum Transport

Thermodynamics of Quantum Transport

The continuous technological improvement of electronics depends on the miniaturization of the underlying components. They have reached the points where the building blocks are molecules. These molecular devices operate in the mesoscopic regime where quantum mechanics and thermodynamics dominate together. The electrons on the scale of molecules behave following the laws of quantum mechanics, while the heat flow through the devices has thermodynamic fluctuations that limit how much heat can flow. This a big challenge to industrial applications, as our current engineering principles are not suitable for this. In this project, we addressed this issue directly by developing new theoretical tools to describe this regime successfully. Such advancements will be crucial in all sorts of thermal and electrical devices. The main objectives of this project where to overcome the limitations of state-of-the-art by using the tools from quantum non-equilibrium thermodynamics to understand the fundamental effects of fluctuations in transport in realistic molecular devices. We focused on two concrete challenges that combined complete the objective. First, we used tools from information theory to understand quantum coherences as a novel thermodynamic forces in mesoscopic devices. We showed how this was able to unlock new control techniques. The second challenge was to use standard techniques for molecular devices such to model transport in these devices. We made significant progress in this challenge. Together, the outcome of the two challenges gives us some ideas of how to understand the role of quantum decoherence by ab-initio of specific realistic molecular devices.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз