The seminal work by Sadi Carnot in the early nineteenth century provided the blueprint of a reversible heat engine and the celebrated second law of thermodynamics eventually followed. Almost two centuries later, the quest to formulate a quantum theory of the thermodynamic laws has thus unsurprisingly motivated physicists to visualise what are known as `quantum thermal machines' (QTMs). In this article, we review the prominent developments achieved in the theoretical construction as well as understanding of QTMs, beginning from the formulation of their earliest prototypes to recent models. We also present a detailed introduction and highlight recent progress in the rapidly developing field of `quantum batteries'.
Activating thermally charged quantum batteries in finite time: Thermodynamic trade-offs between correlations, work, and information
Chalmers University of Technology（查尔姆斯理工大学）；Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata（印度科学教育研究所加尔各答分校）；Indian Institute of Technology Madras（印度理工学院马德拉斯分校）
Collective Quantum Batteries and Charger-Battery Setup in Open Quantum Systems: Impact of Inter-Qubit Interactions, Dissipation, and Quantum Criticality
Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur（印度技术学院焦特布尔分校）
School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学物理学院）；Key Laboratory of Multiscale Spin Physics (Beijing Normal University), Ministry of Education（教育部多尺度自旋物理重点实验室（北京师范大学））；School of Physics and Optoelectronics, South China University of Technology（华南理工大学物理与光电工程学院）
Coherent catalyst induced stabilization of ergotropy in open quantum batteries
Center for Quantum Materials and Computational Condensed Matter Physics, Faculty of Science, Kunming University of Science and Technology（昆明理工大学理学院量子材料与计算凝聚态物理中心）
Charging Quantum Batteries via Dissipative Quenches
Università di Genova（热那亚大学）；CNR-SPIN（意大利国家研究委员会自旋物理学研究所）；Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Napoli（意大利国家核物理研究所，那不勒斯分部）
Fluctuations in extractable work bound the charging power of quantum batteries
我们研究了量子电池的充电功率与可提取功的波动之间的联系。我们证明，为了有一个非零的变化率的可提取的工作，电池的状态$ρ_\mathcal{W}$不能是一个“\emph{free energy operator}”的本征态，定义为$\mathcal{F}~\equiv~H_\mathcal{W}~+~β^{-1}\log(ρ_\mathcal{W})$，其中$H_\mathcal{W}$是汉密尔顿的电池和$β$是逆温度的参考热浴相对于可提取的工作进行计算。我们这样做是通过证明自由能算子的波动上限量子电池的充电功率。我们的研究结果还表明，电池中的量子相干性增强了充电过程，我们在热机的玩具模型上说明了这一点。\ \emph{Note: this version includes our Reply to a Comment by Cusumano and Rudnicki, both published in Phys. Rev. Lett.}
Thermal vapor quantum battery based on collective atomic spins
Zhejiang University of Technology（浙江工业大学）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Southwest Jiaotong University（西南交通大学）；Zhejiang University of Science and Technology（浙江科技大学）；Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学）
Impact of thermal and dissipative effects in a periodically-kicked quantum battery
Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid ICMM-CSIC（马德里材料科学研究所）；Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学凝聚态物理理论系）
