Heat dissipation and fluctuations in a driven quantum dot

Abstract: While thermodynamics is a useful tool to describe the driving of large systems close to equilibrium, fluctuations dominate the distribution of heat and work in small systems and far from equilibrium. We study the heat generated by driving a small system and change the drive parameters to analyse the transition from a drive leaving the system close to equilibrium to driving it far from equilibrium. Our system is a quantum dot in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure hosting a two-dimensional electron gas. The dot is tunnel-coupled to one part of the two-dimensional electron gas acting as a heat and particle reservoir. We use standard rate equations to model the driven dot-reservoir system and find excellent agreement with the experiment. Additionally, we quantify the fluctuations by experimentally test the theoretical concept of the arrow of time, predicting our ability to distinguish whether a process goes in the forward or backward drive direction.