  Stick-slip is a ubiquitous phenomenon in many scientific fields, such as
earthquake and glacier dynamics, acoustics, cell biology, interface science and
tribology. As a fundamental mechanism of energy dissipation in nanofriction, it
can be interpreted by the Prandtl-Tomlinson (PT) model. In this paper we will
show that aided by a specifically designed temperature field, stick-slip can be
used to extract energy from the environment, i.e. forming a stochastic heat
engine based on PT model (PTSHE). Utilizing Langevin dynamics simulation and
the framework of stochastic thermodynamics, two mechanisms of work output, i.e.
the potential mechanism and the thermolubricity mechanism, are distinguished.
An approximate mean cycle work output limit based on the former one is derived,
reminiscent of Carnot's limit. The latter one can make the mean cycle work
output limit larger than that predicted by the former one while the excess of
it can also lead to work output reduction. The mean cycle work curves with
respect to the driving velocity is characteristic of PT model in both the PTSHE
and nanofriction. The nonlinear bifurcation in zero temperature and the
stochastic resonance in finite temperature of the PT model are analyzed
preliminarily. With the corrugation number of the PT model increasing, the mean
cycle work output limit first increases and then decreases. Besides stick-slip
nanofriction and the PTSHE, the PT model is a promising system for studying
nonlinear double- or multiple-well dynamics and is valuable to be explored
further both theoretically and experimentally.
