Friction-free quantum machines

The operation of a quantum heat engine in finite time generally faces a trade-off between efficiency and power. Using shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA), this trade off can be avoided to engineer thermal machines that operate at maximum efficiency and tunable output power. We demonstrate the use of STA to engineer a scalable superadiabatic quantum Otto cycle and report recent experimental progress to tailor quantum friction in finite-time quantum thermodynamics. In the presence of quantum friction, it is also shown that the use of a many-particle working medium can boost the performance of the quantum machines with respect to an ensemble of single-particle thermal machines.