Abstract
For the emerging field of quantum energetics, a crucial motivation is to understand how quantum features impact energy and entropy exchanges in the quantum realm. Energetic footprint of quantum coherence and entanglement, irreversibility of quantum measurement and decoherence are typical research topics in the field. By staging simple interacting systems like atoms and photons, quantum optics provides a convenient scenery to study these effects. In this talk I will present a new framework to analyse energy and entropy exchanges in quantum optics, and apply it to elementary mechanisms: spontaneous and stimulated emission, coherent driving, driven-dissipative dynamics. I will showcase a few recent experimental results to illustrate the operationality of this framework before concluding on the impact of this research on the energy cost of quantum technologies.
Alexia Auffèves
Alexia Auffèves is a First Class Research Director (DR1) at CNRS. She runs the CNRS International Research Lab MajuLab. After an experimental PhD under the supervision of Prof. S. Haroche, she is recruited at CNRS in 2005 in Grenoble where she develops a research line around the theory of quantum optics and quantum thermodynamics. She promotes the physics-philosophy interface within the Grenoble center for quantum science and technologies now known as QuantAlps, which she runs between 2017 and 2022. In 2022, she launches the Quantum Energy Initiative (QEI), an interdisciplinary and international research community to understand the energetic footprint of emerging quantum technologies. Her fields of interest are quantum energetics, quantum optics, and quantum foundations.
