TY - JOUR TI - Work output and efficiency of a reversible quantum Otto cycle AU - Wu Feng AU - Yang Zhichun AU - Chen Lingen AU - Liu Xiaowei AU - Wu Shuang JN - Thermal Science PY - 2010 VL - 14 IS - 4 SP - 879 EP - 886 PT - Article AB - An idealized reversible Otto cycle working with a single quantum mechanical particle contained in a potential well is investigated based on the Schrödinger equation in this paper. The model of a reversible quantum Otto cycle, which consists of two reversible adiabatic and two constant-well widen branches, is established. As an example, we calculate a particularly simple case in which only two of the eigenstates of the potential well contribute to the wave-function in the well. The relationship between the optimal dimensionless work output W