Squeezed thermal reservoirs as a resource for a nano-mechanical engine beyond the Carnot limit

Understand

The efficient conversion of thermal energy to mechanical work by a heat engine is an ongoing technological challenge.

• Since the pioneering work of Carnot, it is known that the efficiency of heat engines is bounded by a fundamental upper limit, the Carnot limit.
• Theoretical studies suggest that heat engines may be operated beyond the Carnot limit by exploiting stationary, non-equilibrium reservoirs that are characterized by a temperature as well as further parameters.
• In a proof-of-principle experiment, we demonstrate that the efficiency of a nano-beam heat engine coupled to squeezed thermal noise is not bounded by the standard Carnot limit.