Quantum confinement and negative heat capacity

Thermodynamics dictates that the specific heat of a system is strictly non-negative. However, in finite classical systems there are well-known theoretical and experimental cases where this rule is violated, in particular finite atomic clusters. Here, we show for the first time that negative heat cap...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2013-10, Vol.104 (1), p.16004
Main Authors: Serra, Pablo, Carignano, Marcelo A., Alharbi, Fahhad H., Kais, Sabre
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
65.80.-g
65.90.+i
68.65.-k
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Summary:Thermodynamics dictates that the specific heat of a system is strictly non-negative. However, in finite classical systems there are well-known theoretical and experimental cases where this rule is violated, in particular finite atomic clusters. Here, we show for the first time that negative heat capacity can also occur in finite quantum systems. The physical scenario on which this effect might be experimentally observed is discussed.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/0295-5075/104/16004