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Researchers Use Lasers For Cooling

Posted by samzenpus on from the keeping-it-cool dept.

MatthewVD writes "Infrared cameras on satellites and night vision goggles could soon use lasers to cool their components. According to the study published in Nature, researchers in Singapore were able to cool the semiconductor cadmium sulfide from 62 degrees fahrenheit to -9 degrees by focusing a green laser on it and making it fluoresce and lose energy as light. Since they require neither gas nor moving parts, they can be more compact, free from vibration and not prone to mechanical failure."

5 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Rubidium by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 3, Informative

    This has been used to cool rubidium to near 0K in labs for a while. Takes some work (the laser needs to be *perfect*), but I've seen the setup myself at a previous employ at a local University.

    1. Re:Rubidium by Noughmad · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, this is different. What you describe is called Doppler cooling and is basically "slowing down" the atoms/ions.

      TFA, on the other hand, talks about using a laser to cause fluorescence in the material. It's a completely different principle.

      --
      PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
  2. Re:Defeats the purpose by aXis100 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's only the sensor that needs to be cooled below ambient, other parts can use traditional methods. So, you make the back side of the sensor flouresce, capture that light in a chamber where it is converted back to heat, then dissipate that heat through regular air cooled heatsinks.

    In the end it's just shifting the heat whilst working against a thermal gradient - same as a refridgerative system, but without moving parts.

  3. Re:NOT NEWS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you actually read the paper (hah), you will see that the mechanism is pretty different (solid state vs gas).

  4. temperature in celsius by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sorry about hijacking this thread, but nobody seems to have posted the temperatures in a proper scale yet, so here we go:

    Researchers in Singapore were able to cool the semiconductor cadmium sulfide from 17 degrees Celsius to -23 degrees