A new model of a quantum heat engine （QHE） cycle is established, in which the working substance consists of an interacting electrons system. One of our purposes is to test the validity of the second law of thermodynamics by this model, which is more general than the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model since it would recover the spin model when the on-site Coulomb interaction U is strong enough. On the basis of quantum mechanics and the first law of thermodynamics, we show no violation of the second law of thermodynamics during the cycle. We further study the performance characteristics of the cycle by investigating in detail the optimal relations of efficiency and dimensionless power output. We find that the efficiency of our engine can be expressed as η = t22/t21 in the large-U limit, which is valid even for a four sites QHE.
The energy band structure of single-layer graphene under one-dimensional electric and magnetic field modulation is theoretically investigated. The criterion for bandgap opening at the Dirac point is analytically derived with a two-fold degeneracy second-order perturbation method. It is shown that a direct or an indirect bandgap semiconductor could be realized in a single-layer graphene under some specific configurations of the electric and magnetic field arrangement. Due to the bandgap generated in the single-layer graphene, the Klein tunneling observed in pristine graphene is completely suppressed.
