Efficiency of optically pumping a quantum battery and a two-stroke heat engine

Abstract: In this work, we study the efficiency of charging a quantum battery through optical pumping. The battery consists of a qutrit and it is connected to a natural thermal reservoir and an external coherent drive in the limit where its upper energy level can be adiabatically eliminated from the dynamics. In this scenario, the drive plus spontaneous emission optically pumps the intermediate energy level of the qutrit and the battery can be understood as being charged by an effective higher temperature reservoir that takes it out of equilibrium with the natural reservoir and stores useful energy in it. We also analyse the efficiency of using this battery and charging scheme as the work fluid of a two-stroke thermal machine. The thermal machine includes a fourth level through which work is extracted from the battery via a unitary transformation, therefore setting the limit of maximum efficiency of the machine.