Ever since the early days of quantum mechanics, thermodynamics played an important role in explaining physical phenomena of quantum nature. In my research I employ novel definitions for energy fluxes to study light-matter interactions in the fully quantum regime, and analyze them in the framework of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Simple quantum optical systems can function as highly efficient heat engines or in reverse, as quantum refrigerators. The fact that also the electromagnetic field is quantized unveils features that are obscured in a semiclassical treatment, of which field coherence and matter-field entanglement, are the most noteworthy.
In addition, I model heterogeneous reaction kinetics, and conduct thermo-kinetic polymer degradation simulations. In these modeling schemes, a whole array of conjugated complex phenomena is explored. These include reactive mass transfer and energy transfer, as well as kinetic mechanistic modeling and particle kinematics.
