If you searched the web for “quantum motors,” you would be pleased to find that, for less than $400, you can purchase one from the eponymous company. Unfortunately, the quantum you get for your money is in the brand name, not the products (which, in this case, are used for remote controlled aircraft.) Quantum motors, it seems, are not yet a reality.
But perhaps the quantum motor is an idea whose time has come. As reported in Physical Review Letters, Raúl Bustos-Marún of the Free University of Berlin, Germany, and colleagues have developed a theoretical scheme to describe such motors, which allowed them to calculate their efficiency for the first time [1]. This work could be useful for motivating and designing future experiments, and exploring fundamental questions about how quantum machines work. Quantum motors could be used to perform tasks on length scales far smaller than those researchers can reach today. For example, one might spin a ring-shaped molecule like benzene in a controllable way.
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