A quantum engine in the BEC–BCS crossover

Jennifer Koch, Keerthy Menon, Eloisa Cuestas, Sian Barbosa, Eric Lutz, Thomás Fogarty, Thomas Busch and Artur Widera ()
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Jennifer Koch: RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau
Keerthy Menon: OIST Graduate University
Eloisa Cuestas: OIST Graduate University
Sian Barbosa: RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau
Eric Lutz: University of Stuttgart
Thomás Fogarty: OIST Graduate University
Thomas Busch: OIST Graduate University
Artur Widera: RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau

Nature, 2023, vol. 621, issue 7980, 723-727

Abstract: Abstract Heat engines convert thermal energy into mechanical work both in the classical and quantum regimes1. However, quantum theory offers genuine non-classical forms of energy, different from heat, which so far have not been exploited in cyclic engines. Here we experimentally realize a quantum many-body engine fuelled by the energy difference between fermionic and bosonic ensembles of ultracold particles that follows from the Pauli exclusion principle2. We employ a harmonically trapped superfluid gas of 6Li atoms close to a magnetic Feshbach resonance3 that allows us to effectively change the quantum statistics from Bose–Einstein to Fermi–Dirac, by tuning the gas between a Bose–Einstein condensate of bosonic molecules and a unitary Fermi gas (and back) through a magnetic field4–10. The quantum nature of such a Pauli engine is revealed by contrasting it with an engine in the classical thermal regime and with a purely interaction-driven device. We obtain a work output of several 106 vibrational quanta per cycle with an efficiency of up to 25%. Our findings establish quantum statistics as a useful thermodynamic resource for work production.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06469-8

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