arXiv subjects

A. Kutvonen

Publications and source records attributed to A. Kutvonen.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2015

On-chip Maxwell's demon as an information-powered refrigerator

We present an experimental realization of an autonomous Maxwell's Demon, which extracts microscopic information from a System and reduces its entropy by applying feedback. It is based on two capacitively coupled single electron devices, both integrated on the same electronic circuit. This setup allows a detailed analysis of the thermodynamics of both the Demon and the System as well as their mutual information exchange. The operation of the Demon is directly observed as a temperature drop in the System. We also observe a simultaneous temperature rise in the Demon arising from the thermodynamic cost of generating the mutual information.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Distribution of Entropy Production in a Single-Electron Box

Recently, the fundamental laws of thermodynamics have been reconsidered for small systems. The discovery of the fluctuation relations has spurred theoretical and experimental studies on thermodynamics of systems with few degrees of freedom. The concept of entropy production has been extended to the microscopic level by considering stochastic trajectories of a system coupled to a heat bath. However, the experimental observation of the microscopic entropy production remains elusive. We measure distributions of the microscopic entropy production in a single-electron box consisting of two islands with a tunnel junction. The islands are coupled to separate heat baths at different temperatures, maintaining a steady thermal non-equilibrium. As Jarzynski equality between work and free energy is not applicable in this case, the entropy production becomes the relevant parameter. We verify experimentally that the integral and detailed fluctuation relations are satisfied. Furthermore, the coarse-grained entropy production from trajectories of electronic transitions is related to the bare entropy production by a universal formula. Our results reveal the fundamental roles of irreversible entropy production in non-equilibrium small systems.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2012

Dissipated work and fluctuation relations for non-equilibrium single-electron transitions

We discuss a simple but experimentally realistic model system, a single-electron box (SEB), where common fluctuation relations can be tested for driven electronic transitions. We show analytically that when the electron system on the SEB island is overheated by the control parameter (gate voltage) drive, the common fluctuation relation (Jarzynski equality) is only approximately valid due to dissipated heat even when the system starts at thermal equilibrium and returns to it after the drive has been stopped. However, an integral fluctuation relation based on total entropy production works also in this situation. We perform extensive Monte Carlo simulations of single-electron transitions in the SEB setup and find good agreement with the theoretical predictions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗