Thermodynamic bounds on work extraction from photocells and photosynthesis

We put forward a unified thermodynamic analysis of generic minimal models of solar-powered cyclic processes that can be viewed as quantum heat engines. The resulting general efficiency bound for work production is consistent with the second law of thermodynamics if it allows for heat and entropy gen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe European physical journal. ST, Special topics Vol. 230; no. 4; pp. 873 - 879
Main Authors Dong, Hui, Ghosh, A., Scully, M. O., Kurizki, G.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.06.2021
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Atomic
Classical and Continuum Physics
Condensed Matter Physics
Heat engines
Materials Science
Measurement Science and Instrumentation
Molecular
Non-Equilibrium Systems and Foundations of Quantum Physics
Optical and Plasma Physics
Photoelectric cells
Photosynthesis
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Regular Article
Solar energy
Thermal cycling
Thermodynamics
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Summary:We put forward a unified thermodynamic analysis of generic minimal models of solar-powered cyclic processes that can be viewed as quantum heat engines. The resulting general efficiency bound for work production is consistent with the second law of thermodynamics if it allows for heat and entropy generation. This bound is shown to interpolate between the Carnot and the Shockley–Queisser bounds. Power boost induced by coherence or multiexciton generation does not affect the efficiency. These features may allow us to design solar-pumped schemes that are optimal, both energetically and operationally.
ISSN:1951-6355
1951-6401
DOI:10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00090-4