Journal article
Two-level masers as heat-to-work converters
- Abstract:
- Heat engines, which cyclically transform heat into work, are ubiquitous in technology. Lasers and masers may be viewed as heat engines that rely on population inversion or coherence in the active medium. Here we put forward an unconventional paradigm of a remarkably simple and robust electromagnetic heat-powered engine that bears basic differences to any known maser or laser: The proposed device makes use of only one Raman transition and does not rely on population inversion or coherence in its two-level working medium. Nor does it require any coherent driving. The engine can be powered by the ambient temperature difference between the sky and the ground surface. Its autonomous character and “free” power source make this engine conceptually and technologically enticing.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, 857.1KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1073/pnas.1805354115
Authors
- Publisher:
- National Academy of Sciences
- Journal:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences More from this journal
- Volume:
- 115
- Issue:
- 40
- Pages:
- 9941-9944
- Place of publication:
- United States
- Publication date:
- 2018-09-18
- Acceptance date:
- 2018-08-21
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1091-6490
- ISSN:
-
0027-8424
- Pmid:
-
30228114
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Ghosh et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Rights statement:
- Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
- Licence:
- CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)
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