Efficient heat-energy conversion from a non-thermal Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid

Abstract Energy harvesting is a technique that generates useful work from waste heat. Conventional energy harvesters acting on local thermal equilibrium states are constrained by thermodynamic limits, such as the Carnot efficiency. Quantum heat engines with non-thermal reservoirs are expected to exceed such limits. Here, we demonstrate energy harvesting from a non-thermal Tomonaga-Luttinger (TL) liquid in quantum Hall edge channels, where the non-thermal state is naturally formed due to the absence of thermalization. The scheme is tested with a quantum-dot energy harvester working on a non-thermal TL liquid supplied with waste heat from a quantum-point-contact transistor. Compared to the quasi-thermalized TL liquid, the non-thermal state prepared under the same heat is capable of a larger electromotive force and higher conversion efficiency. These characteristics can be understood by considering a binary Fermi distribution function of the non-thermal state induced by entropy-conserving equilibration. TL liquids are attractive non-thermal carriers for excellent energy harvesting.