Speeding up a quantum refrigerator via counterdiabatic driving

Abstract

We study the application of a counterdiabatic driving (CD) technique to enhance the thermodynamic efficiency and power of a quantum Otto refrigerator based on a superconducting qubit coupled to two resonant circuits. Although the CD technique is originally designed to counteract nonadiabatic coherent excitations in isolated systems, we find that it also works effectively in the open system dynamics, improving the coherence-induced losses of efficiency and power. We compare the CD dynamics with its classical counterpart, and find a deviation that arises because the CD is designed to follow the energy eigenbasis of the original Hamiltonian, but the heat baths thermalize the system in a different basis. We also discuss possible experimental realizations of our model.