Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

Quantum effects in vibrational energy harvesting

Presenting Author: John Scott, Carleton College
Contributing Author(s): Moses Misplon, Max Trostel, and Arjendu Pattanayak (Department of Physics, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota)

Vibrational energy harvesting is a promising means of recovering energy from random external excitation by coupling these to an electrical harvesting circuit via a mechanical oscillator. We have explored a model bistable vibrational energy harvester in detail to elucidate the dynamical mechanisms which lead to the best performance, especially as it relates to higher energy orbits and chaos. Further, recent advances in nanoelectromechanical systems engineering indicate that such systems could operate at a scale where quantum mechanical effects are non-trivial. Using a semiclassical approximation to quantum state diffusion model, we explore the effects of these quantum effects and find that these can lead to a substantial increase in the efficiency with which the harvester is able to convert energy.

(Session 5 : Thursday from 5:00pm - 7:00pm)