Decoherence in current induced forces: Application to adiabatic quantum motors

Current induced forces are not only related with the discrete nature of electrons but also with its quantum character. It is natural then to wonder about the effect of decoherence. Here, we develop the theory of current induced forces including dephasing processes and we apply it to study adiabatic...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Fernández, Lucas Jonatan, Bustos Marun, Raul Alberto, Pastawski, Horacio Miguel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/51150
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/51150
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Current induced forces
Adiabatic quantum motor
Decoherence
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:Current induced forces are not only related with the discrete nature of electrons but also with its quantum character. It is natural then to wonder about the effect of decoherence. Here, we develop the theory of current induced forces including dephasing processes and we apply it to study adiabatic quantum motors (AQMs). The theory is based on Büttiker's fictitious probe model, which here is reformulated for this particular case. We prove that it accomplishes the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. We also show that, in spite of decoherence, the total work performed by the current induced forces remains equal to the pumped charge per cycle times the voltage. We find that decoherence affects not only the current induced forces of the system but also its intrinsic friction and noise, modifying in a nontrivial way the efficiency of AQMs. We apply the theory to study an AQM inspired by a classical peristaltic pump where we surprisingly find that decoherence can play a crucial role by triggering its operation. Our results can help to understand how environmentally induced dephasing affects the quantum behavior of nanomechanical devices.