Improving engine efficiency by extracting laser energy from hot exhaust gas
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We show that it is possible to improve the efficiency of a classical Otto-cycle heat engine by adding a high-Q microwave cavity and a laser system that can extract coherent laser energy from thermally excited exhaust atoms. This improvement does not violate the second law of thermodynamics, i.e., we show that a combined high-Q microwave cavity and a laser system does not improve the efficiency of a classical Carnot-cycle heat engine. 2003 The American Physical Society.