Quantum heat engine with a quadratically coupled optomechanical system

Abstract

We propose a quantum heat engine based on a quadratically coupled optomechanical system. The optical component of the system is driven periodically with an incoherent thermal drive, which induces periodic oscillations in the mechanical component. Under the action of the quadratic optomechanical interaction, the mechanical mode evolves from an initial thermal state to a thermal-squeezed steady state, as verified by calculating the Wigner functions. The dynamics of the system is identified as an effective four-stroke Otto cycle. We investigated the performance of the engine by evaluating the dissipated power, the maximum power under a load, and the maximum extractable work. It is found that the engine operating with quadratic optomechanics is more powerful than the one operating with linear optomechanics. The effect is explained by the presence of squeezing in the quantum state of the mechanical mode.